


An unlikely friendship, an impossible love

by Estethell



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Age Difference, Bilbo Baggins & Bofur Friendship, Bofur is a Sweetheart, But only at the first, Courting Rituals, Drunkenness, Dwarf Courting, Everybody Lives/Nobody Dies, Feelings Realization, First Time, Gold Sick Thorin, Jealousy, M/M, Masturbation, Nori is a Little Shit, Pre-Quest of Erebor, Protective Older Brothers, Quest of Erebor, Slow Burn, Violence, Voyeurism, social classes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2020-07-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:54:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 63,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23859424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Estethell/pseuds/Estethell
Summary: Nori is a thief who steals drunks, taking advantage of their drunkenness. One night, he meets a drunken dwarf who seems to have a particular interest in him. It's the beginning of a near-friendship that has no future, but despite appearances they still believe it. And when a series of events approaches them, they start to wonder what the thin line is between unlikely friendship and impossible love.Or: Like Nori meets a drunk Bofur and starts meeting him every night to steal his money and chat with him, until a special series of events brings them to join Thorin's company and start their "friendship"
Relationships: Balin/Dori (Tolkien), Bilbo Baggins/Thorin Oakenshield, Bofur/Nori (Tolkien), Dwalin/Ori (Tolkien)
Comments: 76
Kudos: 87





	1. Chapter  1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello to everyone :D  
> This is my first fan fiction on The Hobbit, I hope you like it.  
> The important thing is I'm not english mothertongue and probably there will a lot of mistakes. Please be patient and if you want to help me, say me where they are and who to fix them! Thanks very much :)
> 
> I'm a fan of Nofur couple and I hope to write an interesting fan fiction about them!  
> Enjoy to read :)
> 
> My main tumblr: https://estethell.tumblr.com/

It was a placid late fall night, one of those evenings where the first cold winter bites the skin and loudly shakes the beards. Nori, perched on the roof of a house, breathed heavily into the cold and pleasant air, giving out a smug sigh. He liked winter, he always found it very gratifying to stop in front of the heat of a chimney with a good warm drink in his hand, by heating up and culling in pleasure. It’s a pity he didn't have a chimney, and the only time he could really warm up was when he walked into the various inns scattered around Belegost. But still, the ginger dwarf continued to love the cold season, especially because with all the layers of clothes that people had to wear, stealing was relatively easy.

Slowly he stood up, look around. It was on one of the many roofs of Belegost's houses, an agglomeration of buildings made of stone and with stone, which were piled together by creating very tight spaces to enter or easy passes on roofs to be practiced. Nori had to admit it, that colony was the paradise of every misfortune with all those alleys, those no-go steps, hide where to escape from the guards. It was really the ideal place to live and to practice their dubious trade that, as despised as it was, generously filled the pockets of the dwarf with no effort.

From where he was, there didn't seem to be any guards on the streets, or at least too close. With a leap, he landed on another roof and started to move stealthily, trying not to make any noise. The last thing he wanted was to alarm a few tenants and draw the attention of the guards. Because if Belegost was used to crime, especially at night, citizens were too and were more than prepared to respond to it. Nori still remembered the bruises he had received when, landing on a roof, he had slipped and fell near a group of dwarves, that recognized him as a thief and tried to lynch him and have him arrested. Luckily, the ginger dwarf was pretty fast and agile, and he managed to escape the fury of the crowd.

While he was advancing on the roofs, rapid steps and fast movements, he began to see the lights of his goal: an inn.  
He wasn't that kind of crude thief that caught people, threw them into an alley, threatening them with death, and stripped his of all possessions, pulling a few fists for pure fun.  
No, he was a more subtle and refined guy, able to steal without being seen, and above all capable of concealing the misfact. His technique, which had been perfected over the years, was unique and so far unfathomable: he used to target the drunkards coming out of the inn, he would stand up to them and he'd take out his money purse, he took most of the booty and put the purse back in place with only a few penny. In doing so, Nori made good money, and the next day the poor victim, instead of being robbed, believed that he spent most of the money on drinking and playing.  
It was just genius.

he procured himself for a living of this method for many decades by now. boastful of being caught and imprisoned a few times. Actually, the captain of the guards Dwalin had caught him in the act countless times, but he was almost always able to run away. And the times he ended up in his cell, he could still somehow escape.

He squatted himself on the roof of a house not far from the inn he was targeted, a pretty squalid place in an equally horrible neighborhood. It was one of those suburbs where the poorest dwarves of the colony lived, people who lived almost in poverty with miserable jobs, or simply with such large families that even the gold of Erebor could not lift them up. Plus, that particular neighborhood was near the city's mines, where every day a multitude of dwarfs were teeming at work or just looking for jobs.

In fact, Nori had no right to judge those people and their lifestyle, but he found himself curling his nose when a group of dwarves completely covered in some sort of mine scum, with pickles on the shoulder, it went up to the inn door and came in. He didn't come from a noble family, actually his family was pretty disaster, and that's why he was almost forced to commit the crime and theft, but there were still a few trades that he just couldn't like. And working in the mine was one of them.

_“_ _ So degrading”  _ He found himself whispering, while he looked round again to study the field in which he would act. Still no guard around -That’s a lucky night!- and the street was poorly illuminated, offering lots of dark places where it could act.  
The only thing to do now was to wait for some unsuspecting victim.

The wait didn't last long, and before midnight Nori successfully pickled two heavily drunk dwarves, one of them almost threw up on him in a rush of nausea.  
Just disgusting.  
He was a lover of beer and drinking too, like every dwarves, but to shrink like that was shameful to say the least. Some individuals didn't know what dignity was.

Shortly after midnight, another poor dwarf came out of the inn, even this heavily drunk, judging by his staggering performance and the unlikely songs he was screaming at the top of his lungs. He was wearing a strange, ridiculous hat and carrying a big pickle on his shoulder, similar to those of other miners.  
Another poor soul to lighten his pockets.

As always, he climbed down quickly from the roof, as quietly as possible, and went up to the drunken dwarf, always holding a few steps behind him in the shadow so as not to be seen. But from what he could see, that dwarf wouldn't see a oliphant just a few steps away from him. 

“There’s an inn, a merry old inn, beneath an old green hill… (blurred and incomprehensible words) … on night to drink his fill!”

Oh Mahal protect him.  
But the most annoying thing wasn't the blatant moaning of death in which that dwarf was reducing that funny song, it's like the fact that he was turning over himself, staggering everywhere and dragging himself to the wall of the house. In doing so, it was almost impossible to become invisible and pickle him.  
So Nori decided to change his tactic.

He just stopped hiding behind the dwarf and grabbed him with a hand on his free shoulder. The dwarf immediately leapt and turned abruptly, he's almost going to fall on the wall for getting so quickly out of balance.

“Oh, hello pal, what a nice night, right? Do you want something? Oh, but you're in two, and you're incredibly alike!! Are you twins?” He said with his mouth kneaded and grinding his eyes veiled by alcohol.

He giggled at the multitude of silly questions of the dwarf.

“Hello, yes! Let’s see, my brother and I are twins and we were wondering where you might have hidden your money. You know, for a sibling bet, you mean!” He said as he sprayed his most disarming false smile.

The dwarf remained for a few seconds to see him shuffled, as if his mind was processing some articulated thought, staring at him with a dull look and a silly smile on his face. But at least the ginger dwarf had time to look at it more closely. What seemed to be a miner didn't have the typical thick, intertwined beard of almost every dwarf in Belegost. Instead, there was a little bit on his chin and two long and ridiculous curly mustaches, something truly unusual for their race. In addition, he wore his hair in three simple braids, two of which were absurdly tucked up under that funny, slender hat. He was dressed in fairly simple, worn clothes, a scarf that had seen better days around his neck.  
He was quite disappointed to see him, how could such an unfortunate person have even a single currency of value on him? He had the typical face of those drunkards who spent all their daily salary on beer, and he didn't seem anywhere near smart. But at least it wasn't too unpleasant to look at.

As if by magic, the brown dwarf awakened from his thoughts, and with a wide smile he began to crawl into his pockets.

“Of course, a bet! I have a brother too, you know, and also a very big brother... (incomprehensible words)... trying to bet with him! Ah, here it is!”

He took out a small sadly flat purse of the tunic pocket and showed it triumphant to his interlocutor. He quickly seized it and opened it by browsing inside.

"Ahah nice, there's two purse now!" The miner exclaimed, waving on the spot.

As he had anticipated, the purse contained no more than four coins, three silver coins and one of copper. Launching a quick glance at the miner in front of him, he slipped three of the four coins into his tunic sleeve with a precise and fast movement, leaving only one silver in it. He didn't think that drunk could even imagine what he was doing, but caution was never too much. With a kind smile he closed the purse again and returned it to his victim.

"Thank you pal, apparently I lost. Well, good night!” He said, turning around himself and moving away quickly.

The miner remained motionless with the purse in his hand looking at the empty road with a fixed and distant look. Then suddenly he woke up and a big smile spread over his face.

“Pretty hair!” He exclaimed, and began to stagger on the road heading home.

OoOoOoOoO

The next day, Nori was counting the spoils of that night in his hiding place from a little hole in the living rock. The entrance was hidden by the wall of a large multi-story house, and not big enough to allow anyone to enter. But Nori wasn't a particularly muscular dwarf, and in fact in his work it was necessary to be light and very flexible, quick and silent, and not full of muscles like city guards. Once inside the hole, a large cave was opened which Nori had widened by digging the rock and made comfortable. Not that he needed some comfort, but a dry bed, a small mobile to hide his few possessions and some candles to light up were needed.

Showing the stolen robe in front of him, he began to count the coins with bright eyes. The night had been very fruitful, he had targeted more inns in his "hunting tour" and had robbed at least a dozen people. Of course, with some it wasn't easy, and one of them almost got caught him, but thankfully his ability as a thief had saved him from being beaten up for good.

In the end, he stood in front of thirteen shiny coins, two of which were gold and seven silver coins, the other four of which were made of opaque copper. It was more than a daily wage in most of the guilds of the colony. Nori took one of those red coins and he turned it between his fingers, whirling it over his knuckles. It was one of three coins that he had taken from that idiot with a strange hat in front of the inn in the mining district, the guy who he could steal money in front of his eyes.

Nori sighed, putting his shoulders down and putting the coin among others. Maybe all his goals were so stupid that he got his money under his nose, So now he would be certainly rich, satisfied and out of the loop. Instead, he was forced to steal, because he didn't know how to do anything else, and because he didn't have the will to learn an honest job. Despite all the dangers and inconveniences, stealing ensured a good income.  
And that money was not just for him, but for his whole family, especially to Ori who was still studying to become a scribe. Dori could accuse his money of being as dirty as he wanted, but it was still money and they were constant, while Dori could not always guarantee a steady income to his family.

Ah, his family.  
Thinking about it always gave birth to a feeling of oppression in his stomach, followed by a feeling of nausea. It was better not to do it, he didn't want to ruin his day from the early hours (although it was late afternoon, but for a night person like him it was like early morning), not when he had to prepare for another working night.

He put a hand in one of the countless pockets he had sewn into his tunic, pulling out a pretty used city map.  
Opening it to the ground, he revealed to his eyes an intricate system of dots, straight lines, cross-sections and squares, many of which are circled with coal black. Those were the symbols that pointed to the various inns where the thief could hit, in accordance with the arrangements made with the organization of thieves in the city. Incredibly, even the criminals were organized according to a hierarchical structure that remembered a lot of the guilder corporations of honest trades. Nori was fairly high up in that evil pyramid because of his good thief skills.

He slowly studied the route he would take that night, draw invisible lines on the paper with a finger and muttering. The route he would take that night would have led him to hit unmarked inns other than those of the previous night, but halfway through the route it would have taken over the miners' inn. Of course, it wasn't wise to work for several nights on the same goal, but the miners tended to get really drunk, so it was always safe to steal there. He quickly closed the map and put it in the tunic, and then put the money in a bag and hide it in a cavity in the rock covered by the small mobile.  
Then he prepared himself to leave the shelter and begin work.

_ I hope tonight I'll meet drunk idiots like that guy in the hat too _ He found himself thinking.

The memory of the silly smile and the innocent and genuine expression of that miner made him smile and shake his head with irony.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nori returns to steal from Bofur, but unexpectedly the latter takes an initiative

He arrived at the inn in the mining neighborhood around midnight. The night wasn't very profitable, the thief had managed to lighten the pockets of only two people, suceeding to get his hands on just four silver coins. Of course, it wasn't bad as loot and the night was still long, but the thought of having already targeted two inns without obtaining much from it discouraged him. Even if those inns were not generally very popular with the population.

Jumping from roof to roof, the ginger dwarf stopped on the roof in front of the inn, at the same point on the previous evening where he could keep both the street and the door of the building under control. The neighborhood was calm and peaceful, and not many noises were heard except the steps of some guards patrolling the area. Nori remained hidden on the roof watching as the guards passed unaware and busy chatting in front of the inn.

_ It's the second patrol I meet tonight, who knows why suddenly the guards doubled!  _ The dwarf thought as he slowly got up, eyes stared on the now distant backs of the guards. 

It was really very strange, the guards usually did not patrol suburban neighborhoods so frequently. Perhaps Captain Dwalin had finally noticed that dwarves lived there too, who had to be protected from the underworld, not only in the residential quarters of good society and nobility. Cursed dwarf who kissed the ass of the hereditary king and his relatives, which was among other things.  
Well, actually he and his family were also related to the Durin royal line, on the mother's part since they had different fathers. But it was a very distant relationship, moreover, they had never been particularly interested in dealing with his mother, let alone with his bastard offspring.

Suddenly, the door of the inn opened letting light and deafening cheap music leak in the street. A stocky, large figure staggered out of the building, pickaxe on shoulder and pipe in mouth.  
No hat.  
Nori looked at him with some interest, considering whether he could be a good victim to hit.  
Apparently he was so drunk that he was unable to walk properly, he also stopped to urinate in the nearest alley.  
It was perfect.

With agile and silent movements, Nori got off the roof in the alley next to the road and, making sure that there were no guards or other unwelcome people, he stealthily approached the victim and pickpocketed him. He had to avoid with a quick movement the pickaxe that the dwarf carelessly rotated around him as he turned, a blow that if not dodged could easily have broken someone's head. For the rest, it was very simple to take possession of that shiny gold coin, leaving two coins of lesser value in the purse.

Returning to the roof, he happily looked at the stolen coin and added it to the rest of the loot that evening. Suddenly his evening had improved exponentially. And it seemed to be destined to improve further. 

Shortly thereafter the inn's door reopened and a big hat with a bizarre shape peeked through the soft lights and the music of the place. Nori could see the wide smile on the dwarf's face even from that distance as he turned after greeting who knows who aloud. As the previous evening, the miner seemed so drunk that he couldn't walk straight. He skidded with every step, swaying dangerously, the tip of the pickaxe jumped on the stones of the road as it was heavily dragged.  
It was truly a pathetic scene.

Nori snorted, barely holding back a laugh at the sight of that dwarf. It was so funny that it would make anyone laugh, surely it was the fool of the neighborhood that everyone loved.  
He quickly descended from the roof, heading straight for the victim. If it hadn't been an accident the night before, he wouldn't have needed any special skills with that guy. He approached him vaguely and sported his most beautiful smile as he attracted the attention of the drunk.

“Hi pal” he said touching his shoulder.

The dwarf spun around, almost tripping over himself when the pickaxe's handle slammed on his legs, staring at him for a moment with his eyes clouded by alcohol before smiling at him.

“Hello to you, pal. I don't think I know you but you're already nice to me!”

His breath was so full of alcohol that Nori could feel it over the skin of his face. He tried very hard not to turn his smile into a grimace, while removing his hand from the shoulder of the tall dwarf.

“No, in fact I don't think so. Listen pal, do you have any coins to change? I find this gold coin but I would like to exchange it for pieces of silver, you know I don't trust innkeepers, they are cheaters!”

The trick of changing the coins was relatively reliable, but only with those who were not particularly good at counting. But given the situation, he had no doubt about the end result. The brown dwarf stood staring at him again for a few moments, making the thief nervous.  
Every moment was precious when looking for people to rob, wasting time meant losing good opportunities to be able to seize and money. Finally the miner seemed to awaken from the numbness caused by alcohol and rubbed his nose with the sleeve of his tunic.

“You really have beautiful hair!” He exclaimed looking at his hair expertly combed in three points and braids “They remind me of a red star!”

Nori was quite amazed and annoyed by the comment. Of course, he was very proud of his hairstyle and the color of his hair, and certainly that was not the first time he received a compliment in this regard - even if they were often very vulgar- but it wasn't what he wanted to hear at the moment.

“So, do you have it or not?” He solicited with a touch of irritation in his tone of voice.

The miner nodded vigorously and gestured with one gloved hand to wait a moment while with the other he felt the pockets of his tunic and trousers, the pickaxe abandoned on the ground. Nori rolled her eyes, puffing for the waiting and the pathetic scene. he could not stand the drunks and their sad patheticity, perhaps it was due to the fact that his own father was an avid drinker and was almost always drunk. But this was not the time to think about his father's unfortunate one.  
Finally, the miner managed to pull out his disappointing purse and offer it to the thief.

“Bofur, at your service!” He mumbled when Nori grabbed the leather bag to open it.

“Well, I'll keep that in mind” He replied while counting the money inside. Two silver and three copper coins, perhaps that had not been a particularly lucky day in card games.

“Don't you tell me your name, pal?” 

“I don't see why I should” The ginger dwarf simply responded by sliding a silver coin and two copper coins into his sleeve. Actually, in other circumstances he would have taken the two silver coins and left the copper ones to the victim, many were small and practically useless to buy anything, but at that moment he found himself inexplicably magnanimous with that dwarf.

Maybe it was the pity that idiots tended to arouse in the people that was leading him to do so, after all, even Nori had an iota of conscience, or it was simply the awareness of having already robbed that dwarf and not wanting to bleed him like any other rogue in the city. 

_ A little bit to me and a little bit to you, isn't it? This is how I do it _ He said to himself as he handed the bag to his owner with a smile, but the thought sounded more like self-conviction than a statement.

“Thanks pal, you really saved me!” 

He was about to leave when the miner grabbed him by the wrist with one hand, turning him around again.

“Can I offer you a beer?” He asked with his tongue kneaded, his eyes pleading.

Nori gasped in surprise. Of all the scenarios he had imagined for his robberies, especially to prepare the escape routes if something had gone wrong, that had certainly not been contemplated. Closing his mouth slowly, he frowned at the brown dwarf in front of him. His gaze was still clouded by alcohol, but now he was brighter, his smile tense with nervousness.  
He really seemed to hope for a positive response, looking at Nori with an almost puppy-like look.  
But the thing that most shocked the thief was the fact that for a few brief moments he considered the idea of answering yes.

“I'm sorry pal, maybe another time. I have to go” 

The drunken dwarf's disappointed and hurt gaze shook the thief more than he was willing to admit. The miner nodded slowly, as if he were absorbing tragic news. He left him standing there without saying a word, reaching the first dark alley he found and climbing up the roofs of the houses, almost running away from his presence. he watched him pick up his pickaxe and stagger towards the end of the street, intoning a song that in the beginning should not have been so slow and sad.

*

When he returned to his refuge, he immediately began to count his earnings, trying to drive away the multitude of thoughts that crowded his head.

One gold coin, six silver and eight copper.

_ Why the hell did he invite me to have a beer? _

It could have been better but he couldn't complain.

_ Was he so drunk he didn't understand what he was doing? _

Now he only had to be able to steal some other gold coins and he would have been able to put together the money necessary to pay another lunar cycle of apprenticeship for his little brother Ori.

_ Why the fuck had his name been told? And above all why had his disappointment upset Nori so much? _

In the end, he surrendered to all those questions that crowded his mind and placed the coins in the usual hiding place, to then lie down and look at the ceiling while brooding.  
He could not understand why that episode had struck him so much that it left him troubled. He knew he was not an unpleasant dwarf, and he had had his various escapades, more out of necessity than passion, and he was not new to approaches and attempts at baiting by other dwarves. Besides, that guy was really drunk to the bone, he probably spoke more because of alcohol than by his own will. But there was something in his way that had impressed him positively.  
His innocence in appreciating his hair, when others would show only lust in every single word.  
The hope of being able to invite him to drink, when everyone he knew had offered to share the bed without a few turns of words.  
And above all, the genuine disappointment of his gaze at his refusal, when others would react with irritation and contempt, pulling a few unpleasant words behind him.  
No, what struck Nori was not so much the action itself but the innocence and naivety with which it had been done.

He was not used to such kindness, not in the world in which he lived and not with the people he was forced to attend, in fact not even with his family in many ways. But to think that he had been the object of such concern made him smile and spread a sense of warmth and lightness in his body. Maybe that was why people liked idiots so much, he was beginning to understand too.

*

Being in front of the inn in the mining district around midnight became a habit for the thief. he arrived just before to try to gather some money from someone, then he waited until the miner came out who answered the name of Bofur. Every evening he would join him to take away some coins and exchange a few words with him, mostly making fun of him in various ways, but once he left he did not stay waiting for other victims and changed his goal. Nori could deny the evidence to the end, but his meetings with Bofur were no longer dictated by theft, but by the simple pleasure of spending a few moments in the company of that dwarf and listening to his chatter.  
Until the miner began to attend much less the inn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nori is not used to kindness, that tender! Sorry if it's still so bad, but he will improve I promise!!  
> In the next chapter there will be POW of Bofur!!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bofur is a good person.  
> Also Nori.  
> Bofur POW.

Bofur had never spent so much money on drinking in his life.  
Of course, he was a great drinker and lover of the inn company, especially if the mug never remained empty. But suddenly the money began to disappear from his pockets as if he were paying drinks to the whole club every single evening.

Bofur really could not explain it, but this did nothing but increase the anger of his little brother Bombur and his cousin Bifur. Of low social background, the miner shared a small house with all his family and all the money he earned was spent on keeping his countless mouths to feed. He was not the only one to work, in fact his cousin Bifur also tried to help as he could by making splendid wooden toys, but his war wound to the head limited him in his chores. He hadn't lost his reason, that no, but the axe that protruded from his forehead had incapacitated him more than Bifur himself was willing to admit, making his work discontinuous. The house was also occupied by his brother Bombur, his perpetually pregnant wife and a brood of small dwarves. Bofur loved children and loved to be an uncle, he always found time to pamper his nephews and tell him stories, but there was still a lot and money was scarce, although Bombur had recently found a good job as a cook for a noble family.  
In short, wages were scarce and they could hardly keep going.

Despite this, Bofur had always managed to save a few coins for a beer or two in the evening at the inn, which then became more when he managed to win a few games of cards or took advantage of the spins that his friends offered. He always came home drunk, but his contribution to daily expenses was always very strong.  
Not anymore now.

Bombur had asked him to stop drinking so much - either for health reasons or for the lost money - or at least not to spend all his money on that, coins that would have made more than comfortable for their poor family. Bofur didn't really know what to say, but he had decided to ask to be able to work overtime in order to recover all the lost money. He also asked to be paid no more daily but weekly, so as to force him not to go to the inn any more but only a few times a week.  
The family came before anything else and for it was willing to do anything, even to sacrifice itself.

*

That day had been particularly unfortunate for Bofur. During working hours a large wooden beam had accidentally fallen on his foot, which made him scream like a kid and fill his eyes with tears. Later, during extra hours of work and while his foot was swelling painfully, the ceiling of a small new section of the mine had inexplicably come down. Fortunately, there were no casualties, but that meant they had to clear the area of debris and rebuild the scaffolding.  
All extra unpaid work.

Not happy, even if it was not a payday, he had gone to the inn with some companions to have a beer, finding himself sensationally losing almost all the little money he had at card games. Fortunately, he had already given his brother a considerable amount of money and the payday was near, so he hadn't lost much, but it had been a really bad day anyway.

He left the inn only slightly tipsy and limped towards home, dragging his pickaxe behind him as he often did when he was terribly tired.  
Suddenly a voice called out from behind him.

“Bofur, we haven't seen each other for a while!” 

He turned suddenly confused by the friendly tone of the voice. He was speechless as he found himself in front of a dwarf of considerable beauty, red hair combed in three curious tips, finely gathered beard in three large braids, captivating smile on the face. He was slightly taller and thinner than Bofur, but his bearing screamed elegance and security everywhere.  
He was simply out of place in a run-down neighborhood like that, too perfect to be there.

Bofur did not have the slightest idea of why a dwarf like this turned around and above all why he knew his name, but from his amused gaze it seemed as if they were longtime friends who met after such a long time. 

“What is that face? Have you drunk all the mugs that went under your nose again?”

“No, I… What?” Bofur mumbled in confusion.

The other dwarf shook his head laughing as he joined the miner.

“Drunk as always I see! Okay, let's see what you have in your purse today”

He put his arm on Bofur's shoulder while he made a quick movement with the other hand. Suddenly, the hidden pocket sewn into the lapel of the miner's tunic became light as his hand bounced the purse on his palm.  
Bofur was incredulous in front of the scene. It was impossible to see the pocket from the outside of the tunic, moreover it was never so swollen as to protrude visibly. The only way to know of the existence of this place was to have seen it.

_ It is not the first time we meet  _ It was the thought that crossed the mind of the brown dwarf like a flash while the other dwarf opened the bag and rolled the remaining coins in the other hand _He's the one who took all my money. Damn thief!_

While he was thinking of screaming and calling the guards, the ginger dwarf laughed contemptuously and turned to him, stopping his thoughts.

“Mahal forgive you, what is this misery? Two copper coins, pal, you don't even buy a breath of air. What is it, it wasn't payday today?”

“How do you know about-“ The miner began to say incredulously, when the other dwarf stopped him by speaking on him.

“But how many questions today, usually you just smile, tell me about your useless day and flirt with me! Here, I do not do anything with these two coins, it is useless to take them”

He threw the purse at Bofur as he moved away from him in the direction of a dark alley, leaving Bofur somewhat perplexed. 

“See you, Bofur! Be careful on the street!” He exclaimed before he turned the corner, giving him one last playful look and a smile.

Bofur stood there staring at the spot where he disappeared, somewhat puzzled as he put the purse back in his pocket.

_ But what kind of thief was that? _

*

When Bofur got home the first thing he did was eat something hot. Winter was coming and the cold was beginning to make itself felt on his tired limbs, so there was nothing better than filling his belly with a nice bowl of hot soup. The second thing he did was a nice warm bath in the tub to try to remove all the residual dirt that had accumulated on him since the day. Subsequently, he allowed himself to take a few puffs from his long pipe while sitting at a small chair in the kitchen.  
Then, and only then did he allow himself to rethink the strange encounter he had had a short time before.

Bofur did not remember ever seeing that dwarf in his life, even though he had strangely familiar characteristics. He was not one of his fellow workers, nor did he work in the mine - he did not have a physical body - nor did he live in the neighborhood, because everyone knew each other there. Still, that dwarf knew his name and acted as if they had known each other for a long time. Bofur had no problems with friendly dwarves, he was very friendly with people and he was often the first to party when there was an opportunity, but that guy had definitely disturbed him. Perhaps for his ways of doing so different from his, less spontaneous and more subtle, or for his undeniable beauty.

Bofur huffed a long puff of smoke, creating a cloud that slowly dissipated towards the ceiling. The dwarf was quite handsome, with that well-combed reddish hair, the captivating smile and the gaze so penetrating that it seemed he could lay bare him with one glance. He did not seem to be like the other dwarves he used to frequent in the neighborhood, rough, coarse, dirty and vulgar, that dwarf was of a completely different kind.  
It was part of a reality very different from that of Bofur.  
He seemed almost a nobleman. And he was undoubtedly a thief.

It was obvious that this guy was so endearing, thieves and swindlers had to be so by trade. Surely he was the cause of why suddenly Bofur had only a few coins in his purse, little leech that was nothing else. It was likely that he had been targeting him for a long time, taking advantage of the fact that he was often so drunk that he didn't even remember what his front door was. Those carrion infested Belegost everywhere, especially the poor suburban neighborhoods forgotten by Mahal like the one in which he lived.  
Damn!

He made one last pull to the pipe before emptying it into a container, blowing out the smoke in the shape of small rings that spread in the air. He was not particularly angry, everyone tried to live in his own way in the conditions of poverty in which they were forced, even if he could not bear the fact of having to be deceived in that way.  
Still, he couldn't take it out on that spiky-haired dwarf, not when he returned the little money he had without stealing anything when he saw them. He could easily steal his hat or boots, which however worn they might have been able to get some money from a pawn shop, or take his pickaxe, or beat him just for fun, or…

Bofur gasped, eyes wide while the pipe slipped from his hands bouncing on the stone floor and that thought was fixed in his mind.  
That thief could have stolen his pickaxe.

His beloved, worn pickaxe, his lifelong companion and above all the only tool that allowed him to earn a living. The miners' guild, like any guild in the Blue Mountains, did not provide the tools of the trade and everyone who wanted to join had to buy the various tools. With many sacrifices, Bombur had been forced to buy pots and ladles to become a cook, Bifur treated his carving tools as if they were his own children. His pickaxe, although quite used, was still good and would surely have yielded a lot of money if sold illegally. 

Just the thought of losing it made the miner's stomach ache. They didn't have the money to afford to buy another pickaxe, or a hat or a pair of boots, they could barely buy the food to put on the table.  
But losing the pickaxe was equivalent to losing your job and any chance of earning and surviving.

The brown dwarf stood staring at the abandoned pipe on the stone floor near his feet, his gaze lost in his reflections.

_ That dwarf is a thief, and it wasn't the first time he saw me ... Why didn't he rob me of everything already the first evening? _ He wondered, stroking his beard on his chin.

Thieves were very common in his neighborhood, poor people who stole from equally poor people, a sort of survival war between those who had almost nothing. The stories about how thieves attacked unsuspecting passers-by in the alleys of the area were on the agenda. Empty pockets, stolen objects and tools of the trade, people were often beaten for trivial reasons, even if they collaborated.  
Thieves were violent people, so one had to be careful not to end up their victims.  
But against all odds, that thief had done nothing to him, so much so that he never realized before that night that he was the victim of thefts.  
Or at least, he had all his belongings on him and there seemed to be no bruise on his body.

Slowly, he bent to pick up his pipe from the ground, putting it in an inside pocket of his tunic and got up from his chair. He felt rather tired and confused, his head aching from fatigue and beer, as well as the many thoughts that crowded him. He lay down on his straw bed in the common room where his whole family slept, after dodging the multitude of little bodies of his nephews scattered everywhere on the floor.

While stretching his tired bones trying to relax, the dwarf also tried to empty his mind to fall asleep, but the image of that thief's face, his smile, his hair combed in those funny three tips, and above all the his gaze continued to dance in front of his closed eyes.

_ That thief, a really bizarre dwarf. He could have done anything to me, stupid as I was to get drunk that way every night ... Yet he didn't. Because?  
Who is that thief?  
Who are you? _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, finally the third chapter. I like so much di chapter because I like to write on Bofur and his thoughts! At the end, Nori is a good dwarf :3  
> I wanted to ask you if chapters are too short and I have to write longer ones. It is not a problem to do it, I can change their division, just know it!  
> Next chapter will be a great chapter, many things will happen that will move history!!!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bofur is in trouble, Nori wants to help him. Meanwhile Ori and Bifur find work

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ATTENTION: description of violent scenes of beating!!
> 
> I start by saying that this chapter was initially divided into two smaller chapters, but then I noticed that it would not have been nice to break the story in this way and therefore I joined them. So this chapter will be very long xD  
> Thanks for all your support and leave a comment if you want to speak about this story :D  
> My tumblr: https://estethell.tumblr.com

Even that night Bofur was there.  
Nori smiled when he saw the dwarf with that funny hat come out of the inn with great strides, his usual wide smile on his face, the inseparable pickaxe on his shoulder. The miner was always very cheerful, always with a smile and always ready to say jokes.  
The thief found himself smiling while he followed him with his eyes to leave the inn and stagger on the street.

Nori would never admit it, not even under torture, not even as a joke, but he had begun to become attached to the silly miner. He found it funny and funny and making fun of him was always a good pastime, let's say a break between thefts. He enjoyed amusing himself and seeing his exaggerated reactions, but often he remained only to listen to his useless chatter about his work and his family. It was incredible how he could speak so much in a short time, but it was even more the fact that Nori never got bored listening to him.  
He would have gladly spent the whole night doing it, but unfortunately he had the constant need for money and therefore had to work.

Too bad that Bofur was never drunk.

Suddenly, Nori couldn't even explain why, Bofur had stopped drinking like a sponge but still pretended to be stunned by alcohol and treated the thief as if he didn't understand what was going on. The ginger dwarf had noticed that something was wrong because suddenly Bofur no longer smelled of alcohol, also his acting in staggering while walking was bad. But above all, his eyes were no longer clouded by alcohol and looked vividly and carefully at his every move.

Nori pretended nothing and continued to behave as always with the miner, curious to see where this game would take him. Maybe the guy just wanted to make sure of his bad intentions and then betray him and throw him straight into the arms of the guards, or he had a second darker purpose that he could not understand. Not yet at least.

But the farce had been going on for many days now and even if Bofur no longer brought with him much money - obviously now that he pretended he didn't want to be robbed - he was always very anxious to chat and above all to know something about him.  
Poor deluded, Nori would never have told him anything personal.

With an agile movement, he jumped off the roof and quickly approached the miner who staggered whistling a cheerful tune. The happiness he saw in his gaze when the miner finally noticed it warmed his heart.

*

Something terrible was about to happen, Nori felt it in his bones.  
He had always been a very superstitious dwarf and when he felt that something was wrong he was rarely wrong. 

The feeling that a serious tragedy would occur that night assailed him when he saw the captain of the guards Dwalin patrolling the streets near an inn in the affluent neighborhood of the city. Seeing Captain Dwalin was never a good sign, especially when he was on duty and on the street. Obviously, he was not alone but surrounded by a small group of other guards who constantly looked around.

_ Something is happening, I can feel it! The patrol guards have increased, and now Dwalin is out on the streets. I think it's time to gather some information. _

Quickly, he slipped into an uncrowded alley and climbed a wall, following it along its entire length until he jumped on a roof not far away. He started running and jumping from one roof to the other in the direction of the western suburbs where there was one of the large gates from which you could enter the city. The neighborhood was popular with merchants who came from all over the Blue Mountains to trade with the dwarf colonies. But the neighborhood was also famous in the local underworld for hosting illegal gambling dens, smuggling of all kinds and a black market. It was there that all the scum of the city flowed together, and that was the best place to retrieve some cheap information.

Nori already knew where to go, so he wasted no time and went straight to an apparently abandoned building, which hid the largest clandestine gambling den of the colonies in his cellar. When he entered the strong family odors of smoke, alcohol and blood immediately hit him. He made his way through the crowd and started asking questions, showing shiny coins in his hands every time he turned to someone.

So it was that he discovered that the legitimate king on the throne, Thorin Oakenshield of the Durin dynasty, had returned to Ered Luin after a long journey and that he was looking for volunteers to form a company with which to leave to claim Erebor and kill the dragon that occupied it. He promised a fourteenth of the treasure hidden in the bowels of the lost kingdom, but nevertheless Nori thought it was real madness.  
But evidently it was for this reason that checks by the city guard had increased. This did not calm the thief.

Nori made a few rounds of gambling with low stakes and almost managed to recover all the money he had spent on paying for the information, then left the neighborhood to start his theft round like every night. The feeling of impending tragedy had not yet left him and the thief was feeling quite troubled, although this did not affect the quality of his work.

After a few hours he had already recovered a gold coin and three copper coins. If it weren't for the bad feeling it could have been called a lucky night.  
He stashed his loot in his pocket and walked away from the streets of the wealthy neighborhood where he had operated so far, heading for the mining district. It was almost midnight and he didn't want to be late for his usual appointment with the miner.

He came out of an alley on the main road, always careful to walk sideways and looking down so as not to be recognized, pointing to the inn which was still an undefined building at the end of the road. He had not yet entered the neighborhood when he saw a moving silhouette from a nearby alley, followed by a muffled noise.

Nori immediately jumped back, one hand already on the dagger that he carried on his belt while on the other sleeve a small thin but very sharp knife slipped. He looked at the shape studying the shape, ready to run if it had been a guard or to fight if it was another criminal, perhaps one with whom he had pending deals.

Instead, he found himself staring at the profile of a dwarf sitting on the ground, his back against the wall, his legs stretched out in front of him, his face in his hands. Nori relaxed while he put the knife back in his sleeve. He was probably a poor wanderer or a drunken man who got rid of his hangover in an alley, something common to see in poor neighborhoods.  
He didn't pay much attention to him, he didn't want to waste any more time and risk not meeting the miner until something caught his attention.

Near his feet, where there were spatters of blood and what appeared to be vomiting, there was something oddly familiar in shape.  
A hat open on one side, the threads that came out messily from the torn fabric.  
A hat with an unmistakable shape.  
Bofur's hat.

Nori felt his heart skip a beat as a sense of horror ran throughout his body and finally stopped in his stomach. His head suddenly became heavy and confused as his hands began to tremble, the whole body shaking with cold sweats.  
Meanwhile the silhouette trembled slightly, the shoulders rising in fast and inconsistent movements.  
With his mouth completely dry, the irregular breathing due to an accelerated heart beat, the pale face, the thief approached the figure with an uncertain step.

“Bofur…” It was only an uncertain whisper, but loud enough to be heard by the dwarf curled up on the ground.

The figure jumped in surprise, remaining motionless for a moment, as if trying to hide and remain invisible, finally surrendered and slightly loosened its position. The shoulders lowered slightly as the face came out of the grip of the hands, turning slowly and moving his gaze on the thief.

“I-It’s you…” 

Nori felt the whole world fall on him. It was as if all of Belegost had collapsed on him by burying him alive and crushing his bones with every ounce of his weight.  
There was a lot of blood on Bofur's face, most dark and dry while the fresh one was still dripping from his nose and split lip. He looked at him with an eye almost totally closed because of the swelling, the bruised and purple edges. The braids of his hair were all unraveled but still tied, his disheveled hair falling on his face and shoulders. The unmistakable washing of warm tears was on the cheeks.  
He was in a truly pitiful state.  
And it was something Nori never wanted to see.  
But despite this, Bofur managed to smile at him.  
He. Was. Smiling.

“Who did it?” Nori asked in a low, cold voice, approaching the brown dwarf. It would kill them all, slowly and painfully.

Still smiling, Bofur let out a bitter laugh as he sat more comfortably. Nori waited patiently for him to speak, trying to ignore the obvious grimace of pain he did when he folded his legs near his body.

“I don't really know, pal. I had just left the inn and was walking as usual on the street ... I was waiting for you ...”

Bofur whispered those last words, looking away and staring at the wall in front of him. Nori felt a strange sensation in his stomach, but tried to push it away with all his might. This was not the time to mull over the dwarf's words as if he were a confused teenager. He waited for the dwarf to start talking again.

“But I was not alone. I realized that I was followed when I finally decided to go for a walk while waiting. There were two of them. When I noticed that they were following me I tried to get as far away from them as possible by changing the road, and I found myself outside the neighborhood. You know, I've never been to this place, they must have understood it because they immediately joined me and pushed me into this alley. Their…” 

The voice died in his throat as his eyes began to become shiny, the smile wavering. Nori stood staring at him in silence with a strong frown on his face. He would find those two bastards, do it and teach him that it was not wise to challenge someone higher in the criminal hierarchy by stealing in his territory.  
Because that was the reason for his anger, his violated territory and his authority as a threatened criminal, right?

His thoughts were abruptly interrupted by the miner who covered his face again suffocating a sob.

“They took everything, they didn't leave me anything. They stole all the wages of the week and my pickaxe. I asked them to leave at least that, to take the hat and boots instead, but they laughed at me. Too old to be sold, they said and ripped off their hat and then beat me up”

He stopped, sniffling, then continued in a trembling, muffled voice. 

“The pickaxe was the only thing that allowed me to work, without that I can't do anything. I don't have the money to buy another. I'm ruined! My family is ruined because of me!!!”

He indulged in tears, his face agaist his gloves.  
It was too much for Nori. He crouched next to him and put a hand on his head, slowly stroking his messy hair. They were dirty with dust and debris, the typical mine slag, but nevertheless they were soft to the touch. Bofur stiffened on contact, but quickly began to relax and stop crying. Nori waited for the dwarf to calm down and then talk to him, his voice always low and cold.

“Go home to Bofur. And get your wounds checked”

That was all he could say. Actually he wanted to say many other things, to rail against the scum that had reduced the poor miner in that state, against the guards who did not protect all the citizens, to calm Bofur and tell him that it would be all right, that he would find those criminals and who would bring back his pickaxe. He found himself wanting to embrace the brown dwarf and console him as he let off steam against his shoulder, stroking his head and hair and murmuring sweet and soothing words.  
But he did none of this. He stood up and waited for a response from the miner.

Bofur looked at him and slowly nodded. His gaze was full of resignation and pain, but Nori could also see a good deal of disappointment. His stomach tightened in response, but he still remained cold and detached. When he saw that the dwarf was trying to get up he turned on himself and left without turning.  
He couldn't see him walking in that state, he didn't want to.  
The only thing he wanted at that moment was to find the two attackers and make him pay dearly.

*

It took two days and a fair amount of coins in the underground gambling den in the western district of the city to get to know the names of the two assailants, and another four to be able to find them and seize the opportune moment to act. But Nori was a very patient dwarf and waited without complaining the moment when he would taste his revenge.  
And that moment came and its flavor was something Nori wouldn't easily forget.

He slammed the dwarf hard against the wall of the alley they were in, holding him still by the collar of his tunic. The other dwarf lay on the ground half-conscious and aching, his arms holding his chest where probably some ribs were broken. Nori punched the dwarf well in the stomach, who bent over in pain, then one on the face, making him turn, and then forcefully put him back on the wall.

“I repeat it to you for the last time, damn bastard. Where. Is. The. Pickaxe?”

His tone was just as violent and raw as his fists, his face distorted by a grimace of pure anger. In the fight he had also received some blows, but nothing compared to what he had inflicted on them. They were low-priced criminals very much in the criminal hierarchy of Belegost, very small fish that Nori could have eaten in one bite.

“I… I don't know, we sold it to the West quarter for some coins!” The dwarf answered, trembling with fear. Nori was very famous in the environment, especially among thieves and everyone knew that it was not wise to turn against him.

“And the money, filthy sack of shit?” He pursued the ginger dwarf.

“I… I hid them in our refuge…”

“Where is it? SPEAKS!” 

Nori had everything he wanted to say, then gave the dwarf a good punch, then pulled him close to be face to face with him.

“Try again to show up in that neighborhood and I'll gut you, and I'm not kidding” He pressed a knife out of nowhere onto the dwarf's belly “If I find out that you still have stolen there, I will also kill your family. I know where he lives”

He ended the threat with a knee in the dwarf's genitals, who collapsed with a cry of pain. Nori sheathed the knife looking down on them, proud of the work he had done. He left them dying in the alley and went to the refuge that the dwarf had indicated. He was not as handsome nor well hidden as his, but he found more money than he had expected, as well as food and weapons. He took all the money, some weapons and some food, the rest left him there not before turning the whole environment upside down on a whim.

*

Getting ofur’s pickaxe on the black market was simply impossible, but that wasn't the point.  
Bofur needed a guild tool, it didn't necessarily have to be the same they stole from him.  
This was the thought that prompted Nori to buy a new pickaxe from a trusted blacksmith, the same one who had forged all the weapons and burglary tools he used. It was a really well made pickaxe, light but resistant, the wooden handle soft to the touch and well polished, a small masterpiece bought at a favorable price.  
When he saw it finished, Nori couldn't help imagining it in Bofur's hands as he worked or on his shoulder as he left the inn with his usual big smile on his face.

It was just perfect, which pushed Nori to make it even more beautiful. With a knife he engraved the miner's name on the neck of the pickaxe handle, where there was the juncture between wood and iron. When he was done, he blew the wood shavings off and smoothed the engraved runes with his thumb.  
The blacksmith looked at him with brief glances from under the thick lashes while working on the thief's second order.

“Are they courtship gifts?” He finally asked, making Nori jump in sudden amazement.

“What? Of course not, as you can think of!" He answered looking at him crookedly.

The blacksmith looked at his work with disinterest while talking to the thief.

“Well, they seemed” He merely answered as he began to hammer on the hot metal again.

Nori stared at him dumbfounded, his mind full of chaotic thoughts. Did they look like courtship gifts? But what the hell was that dwarf saying? Perhaps the continuous hammering had given him to the brain. Nori was certainly not buying those items to woo the miner, let alone.  
So why was he doing it?

They could not call themselves friends, not when Nori cheated him repeatedly by taking advantage of his (false) drunkenness to rob him, but still Bofur did not seem to want to stop the situation even though he was fully aware of it. But then how could their relationship be defined? A knowledge dictated by mutual curiosity and fun or an unusual and improbable beginning of a friendship between a robbed miner and the thief?  
Too many questions to which he had no answer, but he could only say that he was not giving those gifts to the brown dwarf because he had to but because he wanted.  
Then, the reason for why he wanted it was completely obscure.

After a few minutes spent mulling over, the blacksmith caught his attention by offering him a small iron and silver casket, light and decorated with geometric patterns. It looked like one of those caskets in the homes of nobles that Nori often opened to steal jewelry and gold coins. He took it in his hands and turned it over to look at it better, satisfied with the quality of the work. It was slightly larger than the palm of his hand but small enough to fit into a tunic pocket.

He paid the blacksmith and went out into the street in the direction of the artisans' quarter, where his brother Dori worked in a haberdashery. Later he would go to find his little brother Ori at the royal library.

*

Nori was lurking on a front roof when Bofur's front door opened and the objects on his landing were discovered. He had thought of at least twenty ways to be able to give him those objects, ways in which he was there and greeted him, or paid someone else to deliver them, or even by breaking into the house at night and placing them in his room. Eventually, he decided to leave them in front of the front door and knock, quickly leaving to not be seen. But he found himself too curious to see Bofur's reaction to leave, so he opted to settle comfortably on a not too high roof and to spy on the door.

When the door opened, Nori was disappointed to see a wild-haired dwarf and a strange axe stuck in the head instead of Bofur's hat and smile. From the miner's stories, he knew that the dwarf was responding to the name of Bifur, the toy-maker back from the war and seriously injured by an axe on his head. Bofur always spoke warmly about his cousin, he was probably a very important figure in the miner's life. 

The toymaker looked around brusquely, then touched the handle of the pickaxe with his foot and looked at the ground with curiosity. He crouched to observe the objects without touching them for a few moments, then jumped up and shouted something in Khuzdul inside the house, accompanying the words with gestures. Nori knew Khuzdul like every other dwarf, but those half-broken words in a strange dialect were indecipherable, not to mention the symbols that the dwarf frantically gesticulated.

A voice answered his scream and finally Bofur was at the door. Nori approached the edge of the roof as much as possible, his eyes glued to the scene so as not to miss even a moment.  
Bifur gestured towards his cousin and then pointed to the objects on the ground. Bofur looked in turn to the ground and then put his hands to his mouth in a gesture of amazement and knelt suddenly. The broken hat slipped from his head and rolled around him as he hid his bruised face in his hands.  
Nori felt a feeling of deep affection in seeing that scene. He smiled when Bifur hugged his cousin trying to calm him down, then went out of his way to show him the objects.

With the tears still running down his face, but with a beautiful smile under his long mustache, Bofur turned the pickaxe in his hands, stroking it and studying it as if it were the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. This warmed Nori's heart and made him smile.  
Then Bifur pointed to a leather bag in which they discovered about thirty silver coins, much more than the wages that Bofur brought with him on the night of the attack. Surely they would not have been enough to relieve them from their misery, but this would have helped for a while to have abundant hot meals on the table and a few more clothes.  
While Bifur closed the bag, Bofur knelt down to take the last object, the decorated casket. He looked at him with almost reverential respect as his cousin joined him. He ran a finger over the decorations as he smiled incredulously.

Nori lost a heart beat. Seen from the outside, that box really looked like a courtship gift. Nori thought about the blacksmith's words as he turned red, his eyes drinking from the miner's expression of pure joy.

_ Oh Mahal… What have I done? _

But even if it was misunderstanding, Nori didn't have the slightest hint of repentance.

The two dwarves below exclaimed in amazement when they found inside the box a spool of thread with a needle and a note. Bofur picked up the note and looked at it suspiciously, turning it to see if there was anything else on the back. He looked again at the runes written in elegant handwriting with a frown, in evident confusion.

It was then that Nori sensed that the miner could not read.  
How could he have been so foolish not to think about it before? It was obvious that the lower social classes had not had the education to allow them to be literate. He found himself cursing for the stupid thing he had done while watching how Bofur put the note back in the box and closed it. He spoke briefly to his cousin in a low voice, the thief could hardly hear anything. Bifur nodded vigorously and picked up all the objects (including the hat), carrying them inside. Bofur instead stood in the door looking around waiting. He cast long looks from both sides of the road as he pulled a long pipe from his pocket, starting to smoke and lighting it with a match.  
He was obviously waiting for something, or better, for someone.

Nori stood motionless on the roof, his heart racing faster. Bofur was clearly waiting for the one who had given him those gifts to show himself, hoping to be able to know and thank him.  
He probably would have invited him to dinner too, knowing the subject, introducing him to all his relatives while telling one of his usual funny stories.  
The thief was almost tempted to go down from the building and show himself to the miner, but the knowledge that this would not bring anything good to both of them paralyzed his legs.

Bonding with someone had always been the big problem with criminals. Having close people who did not practice the craft was tantamount to endangering their lives and making them targets for enemies, as well as the weak point of the criminal himself. Working with the constant thought that the family would pay for any of his mistakes was a madness and Nori had experienced it firsthand.  
In the end, he had to distance himself from his brothers for fear of retaliation against them, limiting the meetings to a few sporadic weekly visits and leaving their roof to live elsewhere. It had been a painful decision for both sides, even for Dori, but it had been necessary to guarantee their safety.

It was for this reason that Nori decided to sneak away from the roof and leave, leaving a hopeful Bofur waiting for a benefactor who would never arrive outside the door. With downcast eyes and a dull stare, the thief descended from the rooftops and walked the streets of another neighborhood without any precise destination.  
He did not want to add more suffering to the miner's already tormented existence, he did not deserve it.  
But that didn't imply that Nori would never give up meeting him every day outside the inn around midnight.

*

Nori screamed and kicked while the guards tied him with a thick iron-reinforced rope. Some of them were bleeding from the nose, while another had a black eye. Captain Dwalin instead wiped the blood that came out of the split lip, but kept his grin satisfied on the face to see the thief finally captured. Nori responded to the look with equal force, even though he had one eye closed because of a well-placed punch from the gigantic dwarf.

“You don't know how long I've been waiting for this moment” Dwalin exclaimed while he tugged hard on the end of the rope, forcing Nori to move forward a few steps. “And this time I will make sure that you will serve all your damned punishment in the cell!”

“Of course, if you are convinced” He replied mockingly as he smiled at the guard.

“Laugh as long as you can, thief” Dwalin spat, then barked orders from the other guards and forced him to walk pulling on the rope.

Nori snorted as the ligatures holding his wrists began to rub against his skin, burning it. It was not the first time he was caught, but he would never get used to this type of treatment.  
He cursed his naivety and bad luck as he paraded through the main streets of the city surrounded by guards, Captain Dwalin proudly on his head, the eyes of the citizens focused on him.

He had been so foolish as not to think that those two assholes he had beaten the day before would get him into trouble by taking revenge. Surely they had pretended to be two innocent citizens, they were so insignificant in the criminal world that they were not recognizable by the guards, and they had held him up as an unscrupulous villain. Needless to say, with the hereditary king traveling around the city, Captain Dwalin had personally taken the situation in hand and sieved every corner of the city in order to find it. And after a daring pursuit, he had managed to catch him and land him with all his weight. Nori still remembered the terror he felt when he felt all of Dwalin's weight on him, his bones creaking dangerously.  
He did not envy the unfortunate poor who ended up under him in bed, not even a little.

He smiled as the crowd rushed at him, looking at them mockingly and trying to recognize who had stolen recently. There were simply too many, which made him laugh even more. Fortunately, the prisons were on the other side of the city and the procession did not have to go through the artisans' quarter, sparing him the humiliation of having Dori's disappointed gaze and Ori's tearful gaze.

Once in the prison, Nori was carefully searched and then thrown into the cell. After the countless times he had been arrested, the guards were now familiar with almost all of his subterfuge and had done an excellent job in the search. They had completely undressed him and his clothes \- with all that was inside - were taken away, then they had untied his hairstyles removing any possible objects inside, finally they had dressed him with a simple long tunic. They had given him some ties to tie his long hair and beard, but otherwise he had nothing left.  
For the first time in his life he had no resources to get by.

He sat down on the pile of clean straw that served as a bed and began to adjust his hair and beard, while Dwalin watched him laughing, gloating for his final victory.

*

Months had passed since his capture, months in which Nori had tried to find a way to escape without success. It wasn't the longest period he'd spent in a prison, but at the same time he didn't like being locked up in there. In these months he received visits from his two brothers. Dori was very irritated by the fact that he was in prison, not losing the opportunity to reproach him with all his mistakes at every visit. Ori, on the other hand, was always very happy to see him and told him about the progress of his apprenticeship, and finally his promotion to scribe. Nori was very proud of his little brother and congratulated him when he told him that perhaps he had found a good job with more than excellent pay. The thief did not know what job it was but he hoped that in doing so the little Ori would settle down and maybe start a family.

Nori noticed the timid but frequent glances that the little brother threw to the captain of the guards, totally unaware, he wandered around the prisons. Every time Dwalin passed by them Ori turned red and moved as if to give more space to the giant, even if he had too much to move. Nori was completely shocked by that discovery, and when he tried to talk about it with Ori he blushed violently and ran away.  
From that moment, the glances that Nori gave to Dwalin became even more furious, reciprocated with equal fury by the guard.

But one day the latter approached his cell and tapped on the bars to attract his attention. Nori was playing with a straw in total boredom, and frowned at seeing the giant staring at him with a hard look.

“I believe this can be called your lucky day, thief. Thorin Oakenshield has decided to offer you a chance for redemption if you agree to be part of his company to resume Erebor” He said bluntly, as usual.

At those words Nori burst into laughter from the heart.

“And end up roasted by a dragon's fire? No thanks, tell your friend that I prefer to rot here rather than go to die in the belly of a fire-breathing!” 

Dwalin was not intimidated by the scornful words of the ginger dwarf, on the contrary, he positioned himself in front of the cell door with all his considerable bulk. 

“The king thinks that your ... skills can be very useful in the journey to his company, also there have been positive references towards you from other members of the company who would like you inside” 

Nori ignored the way that bald dwarf pronounced the word skill, dwelling instead on the rest of the sentence.

“Yes? And who exactly would they be? Because it doesn't seem to me that anyone knows me so well that I can present myself in this way before the king!” 

“A certain Ori says that you are particularly good at stealth, Dori claims instead that you are good at collecting information”

At those words Nori turned to stare at the captain of the guards, his eyes wide and incredulous. Dwalin let out a small satisfied smile as he saw the prisoner's frightened reaction.

“Ori and Dori? But it is not possible, they would never participate at…” He stopped leaving the sentence on hold. The memory of Ori hinting at a very well-paid job broke through his mind like lightning in the night. He made a grimace of pain that did not go unnoticed.

“Ori was recommended by Balin as the company's official scribe. Dori instead presented himself as a tailor and as a tutor of Ori. They both asked for you by agreeing with the king for your release. If you agree to join the company all your crimes will be canceled, Mahal forgive us!” He could not hold back that exclamation of frustration “Either way, we'll be leaving in a week with or without you” 

At those words Nori felt panic seize himself. One week and he would never see his family again. He would have been totally alone with the regret of not having been there when their brothers were toasted or eaten by the dragon, or worse killed on the road by the orcs.  
He heaved a long sigh, then looked at Dwalin with an icy look.

“Take me to him”

*

“I found a job!”

Bifur entered the house gesturing like a madman as he closed the door behind him. Bofur was perplexed as he placed the bowls on the table, Bombur just as he turned the soup in the saucepan on the fire. 

“What kind of work?” Bofur asked suspiciously.

The cousin gave him a big smile framed in his thick beard as he sat down in a chair.

“That kind of job that ensures a good pay” He continued to gesticulate, saying a few words in Khuzdul.

This time Bombur also approached his cousin suspiciously.

“Please Bifur, be more specific”

“I joined Thorin Oakenshield's company. We will leave in two days”

The sound of bowls falling from Bofur's hands rumbled across the room, followed by Bombur's scream. Luckily his wife and children had gone to find a neighbor, so as not to alarm them.  
Bifur laughed at the reaction of his cousins, genuinely amused.

“Are you crazy?! That mission is real suicide!” The dwarf fat screamed pointing at him with a ladle “That axe has definitely devastated your brain!”

“You can't leave and leave us here alone!” Bofur said, concern in his gaze.

“I have already signed the contract, I have given my word of honor” He said in Khuzdul without gesturing “In addition, the pay is very good and if I die, it will go to close relatives!”

“Don't even say it as a joke!” Bofur screamed kneeling at his feet “You can't go, have you forgotten? The Ur family will always remain united! You can't do this!”

"Bofur" whispered Bombur.

Bifur was moved to watch his cousin beg him not to go, not to leave them alone. For a moment he no longer saw the cheerful and smiling miner he had become but the frightened and thin dwarf boy who held his brother in swaddling clothes and looked at him with wet eyes, the mourning of his parents still fresh and the fear of being left alone and not knowing what to do alive in his gaze.

“Cousin” The toy maker gestured “This is the opportunity we've been waiting for for a lifetime. If Erebor is redeemed I will have a fourteenth of its treasures. Finally we can live a dignified life without having to skip meals every day!”

“But I don't want to live in anguish that I let you leave to die in the mouth of a dragon!” 

"Then we'll leave too!"

Both Bifur and Bofur turned to Bombur, the incredulous look in the determined gaze of the dwarf cook.

“The Ur family will remain united, whatever the cost. Bifur gave his word of honor and we will follow him on this new adventure”

When Bombur became determined that way, Bofur always felt a chill down his spine. It was so unnatural to see that iron determination on an apparently so shy and gentle dwarf that he rarely spoke unless asked. 

“Have you heard Bombur? Where do we have to go to join the company too?” Bofur gave a smile to his cousin, who returned with tears in his eyes.

“I am so proud of you” He murmured in Khuzdul hugging them both.

"Well, and now I have to warn my wife" Bombur said coming out of the embrace "And it won't be easy"

*

That evening Bofur began to gather all his belongings in a corner of the room. He was taking a small inventory to see what he should have brought in his backpack for departure. They had gone to sign the contract that afternoon, escorted by Bifur who strangely had a certain familiarity with the streets of Belegost. Bofur looked around suspiciously all the time, well aware of the risks of falling victim to some thug, while Bombur simply enjoyed the walk.

The house where Thorin Oakenshield lived was remarkable but modest for a legitimate ruler, but they were well received despite their obvious social background. A dwarf with a thick white beard asked him many questions before asking him to sign the contract, and when it emerged that they were unable to spell their name correctly, he was content to make him draw a symbolic doodle.

Bofur intended to take almost all his belongings with him, few as they were. Some change of clothes, his beloved flute carved by his cousin, his pickaxe and the box with needle and thread. He took that object in his hand with a hold on his heart. When he showed it to Bombur's wife she immediately screamed with joy, assuring him that it was a gift of counting. But from the moment he received the gifts, no one had come forward to claim it, let alone give him more. Simply, the mysterious suitor had disappeared as he had arrived. Maybe he had changed his mind in the meantime but Bofur would have liked to know him even simply to thank him.

Initially, he had suspected the thief, although on the night of the attack he had behaved very coldly. Bofur did not expect who knows what intimate gesture from him, but he felt even more alone and abandoned as he watched him go away and leave him in the alley to get by himself.  
But then he had never seen him again, not even in the nights when he left the inn, even though he had waited for him for most nights.  
He had simply disappeared into thin air.

Perhaps he believed that with that attack he could not steal anything from him and therefore he was interested in other goals, but this meant that it was not he who had given him those gifts. Or perhaps it was he who had made them but then he had changed his mind and had not shown up so as not to feed false hopes. Or he had died somewhere.

The last thought made him jump and quickly chased him away from his head. Still, he couldn't look for him in any way as he didn't know his name and couldn't ask around if anyone knew a thief with three-pointed red hair combed, just ridiculous.  
He would never see him again and this hurt Bofur more than the wounds he had suffered in the beating, now totally healed.

The only clue he had about the mysterious benefactor was the note that he jealously kept in the box. He wasn't able to read it and he didn't know anyone who could, and he didn't have enough money to pay a scribe. He looked at it every night when he was sure that nobody was awake to catch him in the act. He traced the soft lines of the ink with a finger, following them throughout the sheet imagining the meanings of those words.  
Being an incurable romantic, he imagined words full of love and promises, sighing as silently as possible to those thoughts. But when he closed the piece of paper in the iron casket, the harsh reality assailed him.  
Nobody had come to claim it, and now that they had to leave, no one would have had a chance to do it again.

Bofur set the casket next to his flute and stood there staring at his stuff, fantasizing about the immense wealth that Erebor was hiding and the first thing he would buy with his part of the treasure.  
Probably a brown beer.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pairs begin to form!!

Eventually, the great day of departure arrived and Nori was freed and escorted by Dwalin to the entrance of the city, where his brothers and Balin were waiting for them. All the way, the chief of the guard fiercely threatened the thief, promising him serious repercussions if he dared to betray the company, Thorin or simply run away at the first opportunity.

“I'll bite your head off and I swear I'm not kidding. Just try to take a misstep and you're a dead dwarf, thief!” He growled as he greeted the group of dwarves from afar.

All the while, Nori smiled and snorted, but did not respond to any threats. It wouldn't give him that satisfaction.  
Ori ran towards him and Dwalin let him go with a rough push. The sweet scribe embraced his brother and greeted him with joy and offering him a small bundle.

“I thought I'd make you a small backpack with something useful in case you need it on the trip!”

Nori thanked him affectionately, trying to ignore the small furtive glances that Ori threw to the guy who had pushed him until then. Dori limited himself to a brief greeting, and then focused again on Balin and their discussion.

When everyone was ready, they left the Blue Mountains to head for the Shire. Initially they traveled together, Dori who continued to converse pleasantly with Balin while keeping Ori close, who in turn cast timid glances at Dwalin, who instead stared unkindly at Nori. It seemed almost a comical scene, like the ones the acrobats staged in the streets to attract spectators, love triangles so absurd as to be ridiculous. Except there was no kind of love between Nori and Dwalin, even if he couldn't say the same for Ori.

When they began to approach the Shire in the late afternoon, the two brothers of noble lineage decided to hurry up to check if it was a safe area. Dwalin quickly made his way to the rolling green rolling hills, disappearing into the twilight, while Balin waited a while before following his brother. The Ri brothers were perplexed, standing where they had been left.

“What do we do? Are we going too?” Ori asked timidly, looking around.

“Let's wait as Mister Dwalin suggested to us” Dori answered taking him by the arm.

"Magnificent" Nori only said.

They didn't have to wait long. Suddenly, a large hat appeared over an uphill wall and a man dressed in magician's clothes found himself in front. Upon seeing him, Dori immediately bowed deeply to the stranger, also following Ori behind him. Nori only gave a short bow.

“Mister Gandalf, it is an honor for us to meet you. Dori, Ori and Nori, at your service!"

"Thank you dwarf masters for agreeing to participate in this trip, your efforts will not be in vain!" The magician greeted with a cordial smile “And now we reach our host. I'm sure the other members of the company will be here any minute"

As they crossed the small streets of the Shire, Dori strove to be as friendly and flattering as possible with the wizard. This almost made Nori want to vomit. His brother had a real terror towards the magician, believing him capable of being able to burn things only with a glance or eat people's souls in one bite. Actually, Nori was also afraid of that strange character, but he was not so afraid as to reverence him as a foot-licking. Ori instead merely followed them in silence, his hands nervously fiddling with the edge of his sweater.

It was when they were in front of the strange round green door that Nori, in turning, saw another group of dwarves following them. They were very noisy and were chatting happily as they climbed the hill. The closer they came, the more Nori's heart started beating faster.  
That voice.  
That hat.  
That unmistakable laughter.  
It was him.

Nori stared at him all the time in silence, his incredulous look and his mouth slightly ajar. When the miner finally saw him, he suddenly fell silent while his expression changed from cheerful to amazed, finally again cheerful. It was his brother Bombur who introduced them to the others while the two continued to stare at each other without saying anything, followed by Dori who introduced his brothers.  
In the end, it was the magician who distracted them.

"Enough with the pleasantries, the time has come to introduce ourselves to our host"

The dwarves gathered hesitantly in front of the green door and it was the magician who knocked on the door with his stick and then pushed them towards it to encourage them to enter.  
When the door suddenly opened, everyone fell on top of each other.

*

Bofur was thrilled riding the pony even though he had spent almost the entire sleepless night. The sudden and unexpected appearance of the small hobbit who ran after him with the contract in his hand only improved the miner's already bubbly mood. Even though the bets were against him, the hobbit had made a good impression on Bofur, who felt a certain sympathy for the little creature. Knowing that he would be a permanent member of their company only pleased the brown dwarf, good company never refused. But his thoughts weren't aimed at that particular companion now.

His gaze wandered on the backs of the dwarves who preceded him in a row on the narrow path between the rocks, lingering on one back in particular. The thief was looking fascinated at the grassy and rocky landscape that surrounded them, not caring in the least about the pair of eyes that pierced his back.  
Bofur almost came out of his boots when he saw him in disbelief and speechless the night before. How likely were they to meet him on that suicide mission?  
Yet thanks to Mahal, they were both there.

Bofur would have liked to talk to him, ask him questions on questions, ask him where he had been all that time, or if he had been the one to give him the pickaxe and the box, but his tongue stuck to the palate and he was unable to pronounce a single word. He just stared at him smiling while the other dwarves chatted around them.

Of course, he hadn't been able to spend all his time staring at him because he had been busy and distracted by the other dwarves, but he had tried to interact by stealing a row of dried sausages while he was distracted. They found themselves contesting it playfully, thief's bright eyes straight in his gaze, until they were interrupted by Fili and Kili who with a knife cut the line cleanly, laughing like crazy.  
Bofur was very disappointed when Nori put his part on his shoulder and approached Ori.

That night, he stayed awake for a long time on the floor of the hobbit hole listening to the rhythmic snoring of the other dwarves, his mind flying in fantasy while his eyes stared into the dark in the spot where the thief had crouched against his brothers.  
Nori.  
Finally he knew his name, he could finally call him and talk to him freely without having to pretend to be drunk or be robbed. Even if he wasn't sure about the last point.

He was distracted by Thorin's scream to stop and prepare for lunch. He laughed when he saw the obvious relief of the hobby in hearing the word lunch and dismounting. Bofur took pity on that little creature accustomed to the comforts of a beautiful and comfortable home life in seeing his massaging his legs insistently while he grimaced in pain. Riding always led to bruising on the legs the first few days.

Bofur nimbly got off his pony and hurried to reach Bombur who was already recovering everything needed to start cooking. When the other dwarves found that there was a cook among them many sighed with relief and gave friendly pattings to the shy ginger dwarf. Suffering from hunger and having to be satiated with bland food was not among the company's wishes.

Bofur offered to help his brother cook the soup, recovering the various ingredients while Gloin and Oin lit the fire. The rest of them made themselves comfortable around them, those engaged in arranging the horses and those who relaxed on the grass or against the rock.  
Bofur felt on himself the feeling of being fixed by a certain dwarf and tried to appear in the best possible way, hiding his embarrassment and anxiety with well-calculated gestures.

Soon, the soup began to spread an inviting scent and many dwarves approached with mouth water. When Bombur decreed that it was ready, Bofur undertook to fill the bowls and serve them to the various dwarves. When the thief's turn came, Bofur looked him straight in the eye and smiled.

"Here’s to you, Nori" He took care to underline the name of the dwarf as he filled the bowl with a glass of liquid.  
The thief contracted his braided eyebrows for a moment, but it was only a moment that quickly passed replaced by a sly smile.

“Thanks, Bofur”

The miner's hands trembled as he filled the next dwarf's bowl.

*

When they finally decided to camp for the night, Nori asked to be the first on guard turn. However, he was not able to sleep early so he decided to spend those hours of insomnia doing something useful, not to find it later. He was not the only one to stay awake, in fact Fili and Kili continued to play with their knives and pieces of wood near the fire while Thorin dozed near a rock, too wary to sleep. Instead, the others snored deeply, while the hobbit turned continuously in its state of sleep.

Nori decided to sit on a stone in a spot where he could keep the whole field under control. His shift was not very long and soon he would have to wake Balin up for his part, but this allowed him to wander with his mind about the events that happened recently.

He was there, dear Mahal, he was there in that company and smiled at him whenever their eyes met. Nori was literally shocked when he saw him in front of the hobbit door, with his beautiful smile, the joyful look and the cheerful voice. Months had passed since the last time he had seen him but time had not weakened his interest in him, of the contrary.

Nori stared at him for a long time in the hobbit house, trying to dwell on every detail of the dwarf. He discovered that he had missed his presence and that frightened him even more than Thorin's screams or the magician's sudden snap in defending the hobbit.  
He had never been an affectionate dwarf towards others -apart from the family- he had never had real or serious feelings towards others. All his adventures could be summed up in escapades dictated more by the will of a good fuck than by the real feeling. When looking at a dwarf, it was usually to evaluate its reliability or the possibility of robbing it, or just to look for a one-night adventure. It had never happened that Nori looked at other dwarves for different reasons to these.  
But when he looked at Bofur he did not think of a miserable fuck or work, but of his smile, his cheerfulness and his voice.

These new and unknown feelings terrified the dwarf and pushed him to close more in himself. Thieves could not afford lasting affections, nor were they interested in such things. But it seemed that that rule was not as firm as he thought.

It was his fear that prompted him to move away from the miner when they were playing to pull the row of sausages in the hobbit house, no longer knowing how to deal with the penetrating gaze of the other dwarf. Maybe he should have talked about his doubts with Dori, who was very wise on these matters, or so he believed. But the thought of hearing what he already knew in his heart said aloud stopped him.  
He would ruin that poor dwarf, make fun of him and then abandon him when he got tired, mortify him and undermine his honor because he was a thief and thieves were unreliable people.  
Although Nori didn't feel this way this time.

He spent some time mulling over these thoughts, then decided it was time to wake Balin up and finish his turn. The old dwarf slept soundly when Nori shook him, making him feel guilty for having to wake him up. When Balin was finally ready to replace him, Nori realized that the old dwarf, instead of sleeping next to his brother, had decided to join an unsuspecting Dori. Nori frowned confused and suspicious, but soon forgot busy looking for a place to lie down to sleep. When he finally got to bed and closed his eyes, the hobbit next to him sat down, sighing resignedly, and then got up.

*

"One two Three! Come on Bifur!"

The group of dwarves around Bifur pulled the pants tightly over the latter's body, who was trying to help them as much as he could.  
The whole company was half naked and hurriedly tried to get dressed by rummaging through the pile of clothes thrown around the bonfire in trying to find their own clothes.

The adventure with the trolls had quickly turned into a real nightmare for the dwarves, who had seriously feared ending up roasted and in the bellies of those hideous creatures.  
Only thanks to the ingenuity of the small hobbit and the timeliness of the magician had they managed to get away without even a scratch, but they had really come close to a bad end.

Nori tightened the belt around his waist to keep the tunic still and fastened the buckle. Luckily his clothes had all been piled up near a small rock so he didn't have to work hard to find them. In the meantime, he arranged the various knives that he hid between the robes in their respective places. Thanks to Mahal, the trolls had not decided to burn their clothes or would have lost most of their paraphernalia.

He and Thorin's nephews were the first to get dressed. Because of his dangerous life, the thief had long since learned to dress or undress quickly, a skill on which survival itself sometimes depended. Obviously, he spent the rest of the time pretending to settle on the various accessories while glancing rather lewdly in the direction of a certain dwarf. 

Obviously, nobody was completely naked, those stupid trolls had mistaken their longjohns for their skin and had not completely stripped them, but even so it was the first time he had seen the miner in such intimate clothes. They had never had the opportunity to sleep without armor or clothes, even in the hobbit house, so Nori took advantage of the opportunity to get some idea about the other's body. As he suspected, Bofur presented the typical well-built physique of the miners. Well-defined arm muscles, strong legs and a broad chest, even if he had a bit of a heavy drinker's belly. But the thief did not care, on the contrary it increased his charm.  
More he looked at him, more he liked it.

When he realized he was staring too hard, he looked away from the others. So it was that he discovered that Ori had his eyes literally glued to Dwalin, who responded with short, timid glances as he dressed. Nori narrowed his eyes suspiciously when he noticed that Dwalin lingered a little too long in putting on his tunic, intentionally showing off the muscles of his chest and back. A sight Ori looked at in its entirety, his cheeks red and his mouth half-open.  
Nori almost had the urge to stand between them and cover Ori's sight, but he was distracted by another hilarious scene to say the least.

Dori, who had managed to get fully dressed despite all the layers of clothes he wore, was gathering all Balin's clothes and offering them to him one by one while the other dwarf thanked him with a smile and dressed. When he could, Dori helped him put on a sleeve or button something.  
Nori was dumbfounded by all that concern that was not towards Ori.

_ What the hell is going on here?  _ He wondered to himself as he frowned at his brothers.

Ori met his eyes and blushed violently, hiding from the sight of his brother as he put on his handmade wool sweater. Dori instead looked back with a frown, and then turned him away while Balin asked him to pass his boots.  
Nori would have liked to continue staring at his two brothers who were clearly flirting with Fundin's sons, but a cry caught his attention.

"Has anyone seen my hat?"

It was Bofur desperately looking for his hat, looking around and rummaging through the heaps of less and less cloths. After a few moments Bilbo began to help the miner, followed by Fili and Kili who searched around the statues of the trolls. The other dwarves were too busy dressing or, in Gandalf and Thorin's case, arguing about the events that just happened.

Nori looked around without haste, convinced that the hat had rolled under some pile of cloths or weapons scattered here and there, moving away from the bonfire towards the paddock where the trolls had kept the horses. He leaned on the fence with his arms, looking around, then saw it. The hat had rolled near one of the poles that made up the fence, half hidden by a weed bush. The thief bent to pick it up, but instead of shouting triumphantly that he had found it, he turned it over in his hand, inspecting it.

Despite appearances, the hat was well made and incredibly soft to the touch. The fabric and leather were a little ruined by wear and old age, but not too much and the external part had been treated to make it waterproof. Inside, a very fine padding made it warm and comfortable to wear. The seams were thick and resistant, but one in particular attracted the attention of the thief. It was a small seam made with crooked but tight stitches that fixed a tear on the side of the hat. Nori immediately recognized the colored thread like the one he had given to the miner with the box. 

The ginger dwarf ran his thumb across the seam, stroking it slowly as a small smile made its way across his face. It was not beautiful even if functional, and surely an expert hand could have sewed the tear with less thread and smaller points, but Nori liked it anyway. He wasn't particularly good at sewing, not like Dori, but he knew how to get by and he could recognize a good job when he saw one. As he stroked that seam, he wondered what it would be like with some decoration around it, one of the simple ones he had managed to learn before leaving home.  
A sudden voice from behind his shoulders frightened him, his hat jumping slightly in his hands.

"Ah here he is, you found it!"

"Yes, he had ended up near the fence!" He replied turning and smiling at the little hobbit "As a good, why don't you bring it back to Bofur?"

Nori followed with his eyes the small figure that was walking towards Bofur, the hat in his hands that was shown triumphant. For a moment he regretted not being the one to bring it to him when he saw the miner embrace the hobbit and put his hat back on his head, but that feeling was immediately rejected in the depths of his heart.  
Sniffling, he approached Ori to get in the way between him and the guard who still lingered in getting dressed.

*

Obviously, the evils never come alone.  
The misadventure with the trolls and the lack of sleep were not enough, within a few hours they lost almost all their possessions and ponies and had to face a daring escape from the orcs, and then find themselves in Rivendell surrounded by elves.  
The mood of the company was bad to say the least.

The only thing that managed to slightly lift it was the dinner and the hustle and bustle that followed thanks to the songs of Bofur. The food was bad and mostly green and even the shadow of the flesh.  
After dinner, where in fact few of them actually ate, the company decided not to use the rooms assigned to them but to camp out and sleep on one of the spacious balconies of Elrond's house. Immediately some of them lit a fire by breaking the furniture gathered around, while magically appeared some meat to be roasted.

Dwalin was not sure, but seeing Nori's satisfied grin and knowing him for a long time he was almost sure that the thief had something to do with it. It would not have been difficult for that individual to sneak into the elves' pantries and plunder them without being discovered. Not that Dwalin felt pity for those hateful creatures, but the very concept of theft irritated him.

He laughed heartily when the miner made fun of his brother by making him break the piece of furniture on which he was sitting, but when the fun was over he returned to look badly at the thief. He didn't trust that person, he had spent many years of his career chasing him and throwing him in prison and he knew how subtle he could be. He was not the type to look over his shoulder.

He crossed his arms threateningly as usual when he noticed that Nori realized he was staring, as if to challenge him. But the provocation was not caught while the thief turned his attention elsewhere and shook his clothes hanging to dry. Dwalin found himself snorting satisfied. 

He watched the thief for a long time until someone discreetly sat next to him. Dwalin frowned as he turned to stare at him, sat on the edge of the group and wanted no company. But he changed his mind when he saw the shy smile on Ori's red face.

“Are you all right, Mister Dwalin? You are so unfriendly tonight"

Oh, sweet little Ori, always so shy but immensely kind to others.  
Initially, Dwalin had ignored his presents most of the time, he was so composed and silent that one could easily forget him. In addition, he spoke very slowly except when he took the initiative or started talking about some of his passion. The constant presence of Dori at his side did not help the emergence of his person.

Dwalin hadn't felt the need to talk to him, in fact he barely remembered his existence, but Ori seemed to have some sort of interest in him. The warrior was not the best of intuition and often he could not read the atmosphere or catch the signals as his brother Balin did, but the reverence that Ori reserved for him was quite clear. He stared at him constantly, tried to be near him at all times, hung from his lips even for the most banal speeches and often tried to exchange a few words with him with timid approaches.  
If Dwalin was initially annoyed by the situation, he quickly got used to the boy and began to have more confidence with him.  
Until they were captured by the trolls.

Dwalin would never forget the boy's burning gaze on him as he dressed, as his eyes rose and fell on his body. He looked thirsty in front of a pitcher full of water but that he could not reach, then he looked at it from afar with raw desire. Dwalin still remembered how embarrassing the situation made him blush, and there were few things in the world -and still alive- that could boast of having aroused a similar reaction.

It was at that moment that Dwalin became fully aware of the presence of the dwarf in the company, and above all of his appearance. To say that he too observed him while dressing was diminishing the careful assessment that the warrior gave him while trying to put on his tunic.  
He had focused on every detail of his body, on every defect and value, and concluded that he liked it.

That boy of barely legal age had aroused his interest, something not to be believed.

But then that bastard of a thief had come between them covering his view and starting to help the scribe get dressed quickly by urging him to hurry. From the glares he had thrown at him it was clear that he had noticed that strange situation that had arisen between him and his brother, and he did not approve.  
Well, Dwalin didn't approve of Nori’s entire existence so they were even.

Ori began to fiddle with the edges of the sleeves of his wool sweater, his gaze fixed on his feet and a nervous smile on his face.  
He was simply adorable.  
Dwalin sat down more comfortably to get a better view of the dwarf.

“I'm not unfriendly, I'm enjoying the evening. Rather, you should stop calling me mister"

"W-why?" Ori asked immediately, looking at him with a worried look.

“Because we are not strangers, Ori. Dwalin will do just fine"

The scribe nodded slowly as his posture relaxed with relief. Dwalin found himself masking a small smile by turning to the bonfire. The other dwarves were starting to sing obscene songs to thank the elves for dinner, making sure everyone in the valley could hear them. At the first stanzas Ori blushed conspicuously and pledged to mistreat the fabric of his sweater more strongly.

"I'm very happy that Balin recommended me for this mission," He said suddenly trying to overcome the obscene screams of the rest of the company with his weak voice.

Dwalin, who in the meantime was following the rhythm of the song with one foot, turned to him and nodded. Ori felt encouraged by the gesture of the warrior and continued.

"Yes, in short, I got to know all of you and I'm so happy about this"

Dwalin staggered slightly under the scribe's fixed and brilliant gaze. There was a sense of authenticity and deep admiration that made the warrior uncomfortable leading him to wonder what he had done to deserve so much respect. He scratched the back of his neck uncertainly and replied with a grunt, not knowing what else to say. But Ori continued his speech with fervor as if he were talking about knitting or some poem.

“Besides, I'm so happy to be here with my brothers! Balin and Dori seem to get along very well, and I can finally spend time with Nori. I hardly ever saw him in Belegost, and now he is always by my side. Is gorgeous!"

But Dwalin's snort dropped his little smile. The warrior shook his sarcastic head as he glanced in the direction of the thief, who was busy showing a magic trick to Thorin's two nephews by making coins disappear in the palm of his hand.

“It is really hard to believe, I swear. Both you and Dori are two respectable and exquisite people, with impeccable manners and immaculate honor. I don't understand where that thief came from, I can't believe he's from your own family. You have nothing in common with that individual, really. He is so mean and a liar, lives to defraud others and enjoys doing so. And no matter how many times I beat him in the cell, once he was out he was always there ready to break the law again. You shouldn't be dating, you- "

"It is not so!"

Dwalin spun around to look at Ori in disbelief. The sweet, shy scribe who struggled to make his voice heard among the songs of the other dwarves had interrupted the warrior with a strong and sure voice. He held his warrior's gaze with his head held high while anger and indignation made their way onto his face, his eyes shining with tears.

“You have no right to speak in this way about my brother, Dwalin son of Fundin, you know nothing! It is our fault that Nori has become what he is! It's thanks to him if we didn't end up begging to be able to eat when Dori's salary wasn't enough to feed us. It is thanks to him and to what he did if I was able to study and begin the apprenticeship of a scribe. And it is always thanks to him if Dori managed to join the tailors' guild and find a decent job so as not to starve us! We owe everything to Nori, I owe him everything!”

Now tears were streaming down the scribe's face as he spoke excitedly in front of a rather shocked and speechless Dwalin.

“You shouldn't judge someone without knowing him, Nori sacrificed his future for us. He could have become a skilled flutist or a jeweler, but he chose us ... I love him very much ..."

Ori let out his sobs as he wiped his tears with the mistreated edge of his sweater. Dwalin opened and closed his mouth several times, unsure of what to say as his heart shattered at the sight of the scribe in that state.

“I didn’t-“

“Goodnight, Mister Dwalin”

Ori jumped up and walked away quickly, carefully avoiding being seen by his brothers. But if Dori was busy showing a smiling Balin an embroidery on a tunic made by him, Nori was immediately attracted by the movement of his little brother. He followed him with his eyes as he took refuge behind a column near Bilbo, who began to console him, then turned to Dwalin. The warrior was still shocked and incredulous by the reaction of the writer, but he found himself shivering at the thief's gaze. And he rarely got scared.  
But Nori's gaze was the typical warning:

_ You made my brother cry, I will make you cry. Three times. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh Dwalin, you don't have a bit of tact!!! I loved writing the part between Dwalin and Ori, even if it is not my favorite couple because they are very close together. Dwalin is an awkward bear while Ori is a shy, soft plush :3  
> In the next chapter there will be important events!!!  
> I'm active on Tumblr here: https://estethell.tumblr.com


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally Bofur discovers what is written on the note. In the meantime, there are family reunions.

That evening a pleasant breeze blew between the arches of the walls of Rivendell. Bofur enjoyed the warm wind sitting on a bench on one of the many balconies of the house of the elves. There was an oddly pleasant silence around him, interrupted only by the snoring of his dwarf companions who slept on another nearby balcony.

But Bofur wasn't very sleepy that night. He was not used to all the ease they had experienced in the various days of stopping at Rivendell and he felt more than rested. Perhaps he could even say that he had never rested so much and so comfortably in his entire life.

Instead of spending whole hours turning over under the covers, the brown dwarf had decided to find a nice little place of his own to pass the time, even if the next day they had planned to leave Rivendell in secret to resume their journey.   
Putting a hand in his pocket, he took the note he could not read and opened it like every evening. By dint of folding it and opening it, the card paper had begun to show the first signs of wear and to accentuate the folds. The edges were beginning to wear out and the paper to turn yellow.

Bofur treated the note as if it were the most precious gem he had ever found in the mines, he absolutely did not want to risk irreparably ruining the only link he had with him who had given him those courtship gifts.   
Actually, it was only a lie that Bofur wanted to believe. Nobody had claimed it after the gifts, so they were not courtship gifts, but the miner liked to think so.

The ink was still bright on the battered paper. Bofur followed one of the gentle curves of the handwriting with one finger, as was his habit.  
He smiled as he followed the runes which unlike the other scriptures were very soft and rounded. Maybe he would never know the meanings they hid, even if he wanted it more than anything else, but at least he tried to memorize them in order to draw them in the ground or with a charcoal on the smooth stone.

The sound of a rustle and small steps attracted his attention to one of the few closed walls of the entire valley. After a few moments Bilbo appeared, who evidently did not expect to find the dwarf sitting on that bench at that time. Bofur smiled at him and invited him to approach with a wave of the hand.

“Hi Bilbo, what are you doing around this time of night?”

Bilbo looked around uncertainly, as if looking for something, then resigned himself and sat down next to the miner, his legs swinging more than those of the dwarf, the elven bench was so tall.

“I was taking a simple night walk” He replied trying to be as casual as possible.

Bofur looked at him out of the corner of his eye as his smile widened further under his long mustache. Bilbo seemed to be looking for something, or someone, but evidently he didn't want to talk about it. He did not know whether to tell him that he had seen Thorin, returning from the meeting with Elrond and Gandalf, go down the stairs to the balcony where the dwarves had camped.

Oh dear, sweet Bilbo. He had developed that obvious attraction to Thorin that made him so eager to please him, that he did not notice that the head of their company was always trying to avoid him. Or he simply didn't want to admit it so as not to suffer. Bofur felt a strong sympathy towards him, also suffering from not being able to relate to the thief who now occupied his mind perpetually.

Bofur fiddled with the piece of paper as Bilbo continued to look down from the balcony, hoping to catch a glimpse of something.

“The meeting ended a few hours ago, you know? I caught a glimpse of Thorin going down the stairs, by now he'll be sleeping with the others” Finally he said he could no longer bear to see the little hobbit apprehensive.

Bilbo jumped slightly and turned to look at him alarmed, the redness that was beginning to spread on his face and on the tip of his ears.

“W-what makes you think I was looking for him?” 

At that question Bofur could not hold back a small laugh. Certainly, he would not have told him that he had caught him one evening giving pleasure hidden in the woods thinking of the king without a mountain.   
It had been a few nights before the troll misadventure. Bofur had slipped away from the agglomeration of sleeping dwarves to finally find a secluded place to touch himself, the thought of a dwarf in particular in mind. As he walked away from the field he had heard them, small gasps and mumbles that came from behind a tree. Bofur really didn't want to see the little halfling in that intimate situation, and above all he never wanted to hear him beg for Thorin and promise him what would be a good subject for him, but it had happened and was still desperately trying to forget.  
He shook his head to ward off that embarrassing thought.

“Oh nothing, it was just to say. If you were looking for it, now you know where it is”

Bilbo's shoulders lowered as he swung his legs with less force, not even trying to deny the evidence anymore. Anxiety had been replaced with disappointment and the miner's heart squeezed to see him in that state. They remained silent for a few moments, Bilbo still looking down from the balcony with resignation while Bofur stared insistently at the note.   
Suddenly Bilbo sniffed, turned and looked at the piece of paper with interest.

“What's written?” He asked when he noticed that the runes did not correspond to any language he had ever seen.

“They are dwarven runes, but I don't know what is written there. I can't read, I've never had a chance to learn” The miner admitted, feeling all the misery of those words fall on him in an instant.

Bilbo looked at him in amazement but had the kindness of saying nothing, returning his concentration to the runes.

“I think ... yes, these symbols remind me very much of what Ori writes about his book”

“Obviously, Ori writes in Khuzdul like any cultured dwarf from the Blue Mountains” The brown dwarf replied, remembering that Nori's shy brother was a young scribe.

“No, I meant that the style of writing, the shape of the runes and their softness remind me very much of Ori. I believe it is his writing” 

At those words, Bofur stared in disbelief at the halfling with his mouth open. 

“What? What did you say?” He managed to articulate in a trembling voice.

“That Ori probably wrote this note. Why are you so amazed? You should know, in short, if you can't write it is normal to rely on a scribe to do it for you. I thought you asked Ori to write something for you, or at least read what it says!” Bilbo answered in amazement, not understanding the reason for such a disproportionate reaction from his dwarf friend.

The miner's incredulous expression turned into a toothy smile as he embraced a confused Bilbo and thanked him.

“Oh Bilbo, it's fortunate that you came. There is no day when you don't thank Mahal for this! Of course, Ori is a scribe, he will be able to read these runes! How did I not think about it before?”

After crushing the poor hobbit in his strong miner's arms for a few more seconds, Bofur released him to jump up and head for the stairs.

“But, hey where are you going?” The halfling asked as he regained air in his small lungs.

“To rest, a long day awaits us tomorrow, Master Hobbit. You should do it too!”

*

Bofur waited for the opportune moment to be able to speak alone with Ori, who only showed up the following evening. All day long, the company had been busy packing up without arousing any suspicion and running away as soon as Gandalf managed to distract Elrond and the other guests at the improvised council. Although the hobbit tended to stop to look at the now increasingly distant Rivendell, in fact by slowing down the company, they managed to escape undisturbed.

Bofur had tried to approach Ori without attracting attention in order to be able to talk to him about the note but the scribe was constantly under the control of the overprotective Dori. And when the latter was busy listening to every single word of Balin, Nori took his place or even Dwalin. Bofur had noticed that if initially the scribe had sought in any way the warrior's company, now it was the latter who sought to attract the attention of the unfriendly scribe.

The miner did not want to get in the middle of an evident tension between the two, nor did he dream of attacking speech when the thief was present, so he waited for the opportune moment that took place with the assignment of the guard shifts. 

That evening Bofur was exempt from it but Ori had received the third guard shift, the one that went from after midnight until the first light of dawn. It was one of the most exhausting and boring rounds of the entire tour and the scribe was not very happy. Dwalin tried to put himself in his place but Thorin refused the offer while Ori blushed conspicuously but said nothing.

Bofur dozed off immediately after dinner to his brother's surprise, because he usually stayed up late to carve a few pieces of wood or watch the fire for no specific purpose. But he needed to wake up on Ori's shift so he made sure he got enough sleep to do it smoothly.

In fact, he woke up at least an hour after the start of the shift, but that didn't ruin his plans. He got up as slowly as possible so as not to wake those who slept around him and approached the stone where Ori sat, Dwalin's hammer held in his hand as if his life depended on it.

“Quiet night, right?” The miner whispered when he was sure he was close enough to the dwarf to be heard.

Ori, who had been watching him as he got up and approached, nodded without speaking, his eyes wandering anxiously over the remaining dwarves.  
He was definitely not a lover of guard shifts.  
Bofur sat casually next to him and stared at his feet, picking up the thread of the speech he had prepared hours earlier.

“I wanted to ask you something, if I can” He made his debut, and when he saw that Ori was smiling at him encouraging him to continue, he took a breath and put his hand in his pocket to take the note “I don't know how to read, like most miners in Belegost, but you're a scribe, right? I would like to know what is written on this note”

Even in the twilight of the moon Bofur could see how Ori turned white when he saw the note and recognized his writing.

“O-oh…”

“Bilbo says it's your writing”

“Yes… yes it's my writing”

Well, at least he hadn't lied. Ori licked his dry lips twice as he picked up the note, reading it a few times. He was strangely worried about that piece of paper, perhaps too much. Bofur began to fear that those runes were hiding a negative meaning compared to what he had always hoped for. He watched the worried scribe and when Ori finally returned his gaze, he opened his eyes wide and hurriedly read the note.

“Here, it says: never stop smiling. A-ah, if you are not convinced you can ask Balin or Fili, they too can read the runes well”

“No, no I trust. It's just that I was wondering who wrote this note to me”

At these words Ori swallowed and handed the note back to the brown dwarf, shrugging his shoulders as if to say he couldn't know, but Bofur wasn't so stupid.

“If this is your writing then you know who wrote this note to me” He pursued him looking for his gaze, which Ori promptly avoided.

“Please Ori, knowing that is really important to me!” 

“I can't help you, I'm sorry, we scribes are subjected to an oath of silence against customers who ask for it. This client asked me, I can't transgress”

Ori seemed adamant and Bofur began to despair. He certainly could not force him and the threats were not in his nature, also if the rest of the company had discovered that he had threatened the smallest member of the group he would surely have sharply criticized him. And he didn't even want to think about what Ori’s brothers could do to him.   
No, he had to push him to speak, perhaps offering him something that would have convinced him to empty the sack, but what? He had no money and was not interested in craftsmanship, he was only a humble miner!

“Obviously, I'm not asking you for free. I can't pay you cash, but I can offer you more! Bifur carves beautiful miniatures, I can get you one. Or I can teach you how to cheat cards, or even to recognize minerals. Please Ori, I need to know who did it! Or I can give you information for your book, I heard a lot of interesting things during the trip, I can even tell you what the musical instrument that Thorin plays or Dwalin's favorite hobbit dish!”

Bofur managed to get Ori's full attention when he named Dwalin. The scribe blushed conspicuously as he asked him what he knew exactly about the brusque warrior, and the miner saw a glimmer of hope. They agreed on a mutual exchange, an information for another information, and in the end Bofur chose what to ask him.

"Well, we agree, I'll start. As we left the county I heard Balin telling Dori how Dwalin had asked to tell from Bilbo the recipe for his biscuits because they liked them very much"

Ori absorbed that information in his mind by whispering Bofur's words two or three times before nodding, a smile spreading across his face.

“Well, now it's your turn. Who was the client who commissioned you this note?”

“I'm sorry, I can't tell you your name, Mister Bofur. The only thing I can tell you is that he was a male and young dwarf. I can't tell you more”

Bofur could not say whether what he felt was euphoria because Ori had not ruled out the possibility that the dwarf was Nori, or disappointment because he had actually not given him any useful clues, but decided not to go further. The mere fact of knowing what was written on the note filled his heart with joy, even if it was a rather banal phrase.  
Ori must have noticed the obvious relief on the miner's face because he took courage to speak again.

“Mister Bofur, why is this note so important to you?”

“It was in a gift that I received from this unknown dwarf” The brown dwarf began to tell the story of how he had lost the pickaxe and the gifts he had found in front of his door a week later, of how he had waited for the arrival of that dwarf and of the hope of being claimed, which then turned into disappointment when nobody came forward.

Ori listened attentively all the time, his eyes becoming brighter and happier as the story progressed, a small smile that softened his tender face. When Bofur finished his story, Ori wiped his wet eyes with the sleeve of his sweater. 

“Oh mister Bofur, but it's beautiful! I think that dwarf loves you very much, perhaps more than we can imagine!”

“Do you really think so? Yet he has not returned, nor has he given any more gifts. It simply disappeared”

“Believe me, Mister Bofur, probably something will have kept him, but when he has the chance he will come back”

As they chatted softly, they did not notice a pair of wide eyes that stared at them in the darkness between the bodies of the sleeping dwarves.

*

The next day Nori was particularly nervous.  
Generally, he had always been a dwarf with nerves on his skin who jumped like a cat at the slightest touch and tended to grab his hidden knives at the first suspicious noise.   
But that day he was extremely susceptible and soon his adventure companions understood that it was better not to be too close to him.

They had all woken up a bit with a bad mood, aggravated both by the fact that they had rested little and badly due to the stony ground, and by the pouring rain that drenched them in a short time from head to toe. But the thief was truly intractable. He grunted every question or attempt at conversation and quickly ate breakfast to devote himself to packing his backpack for the day's forced march.

They walked early, the boots sinking in the mud while the cloaks and clothes below were soaked with rain. The poor hobbit didn't even have a cloak for himself and in a short time he began to tremble from the cold like a wet puppy. Despite this, he refused all offers from Bofur to take his cloak, or at least the hat to protect his head.  
In his black mood, Nori felt a wave of strong jealousy in looking at the miner's kindness towards the halfling. Why did those two suddenly seem to get along so well?

Of course, Bofur was always nice and caring with all the members of the company, but in Nori's eyes it seemed that the miner was particularly interested in the well-being of the hobbit, as if he felt a kind of affinity towards him. This made the thief burn with anger and jealousy, but also with a good dose of fear. Maybe he was really avoiding the miner too much by pushing him to seek someone else's attention and this made him shake a lot.

But at that moment he had another important question to solve.  
He had to talk to Ori.  
Due to his lifestyle, Nori had developed a rather light sleep that allowed him to wake up to the slightest noise other than the rhythmic snoring of the dwarves. This ability was not always an advantage, in fact the thief woke up constantly at night hearing the sounds of the woods or the rustling of the dwarves who were struggling to sleep, but the previous night had allowed him to eavesdrop much of a conversation that really didn't there should have been.

Ori had almost emptied the sack on him and that damned note. Of course, he hadn't done it on purpose, moreover the miner had proved rather shrewd in finding his brother's weak point and exploiting it to his advantage, but Nori felt the real need to have to talk to his brother.   
He patiently waited for the best opportunity to do it and found it when they stopped under a large rock at the foot of the Misty Mountains.

It had stopped raining for a few hours even though the sky was covered with thick black clouds that threatened an impending torrential rain. Their lunch was frugal because of the few food supplies they had managed to snatch from the elves' pantry, but no one had the courage to complain. When most of the company dozed off for a short nap before resuming the march, Nori walked over to his brother and put a hand on his shoulder.

“Come with me, I have to talk to you”

Ori stammered something incomprehensible as he turned white, but Nori led him to a group of trees nearby pushing him from behind. He tried to be as discreet as possible but knew that their absence would be noticed by at least two dwarves in particular. It had to be direct and fast.

He pushed his brother until he was sure he was far enough from the ears of others and turned his brother facing him. Ori had a pitiful expression on his face, his eyes shining as if he were about to cry when he saw the fury in the ginger dwarf's gaze.

“I heard you talk to Bofur last night”

“Oh please Nori, I didn't know Bofur had that note!”

“You sold me for a stupid hobbit recipe to impress that brainless giant!” He whispered loudly as if he were stifling a scream.

“I didn't say anything, Bofur doesn't know it was you!”

“You did what?”

The two dwarves turned suddenly towards Dori who reached them in a short time, the anger that dripped on every fiber of his body. He grabbed Nori's hand forcefully and pulled him away from his younger brother, the thief who writhed in pain.

“What are you doing to little Ori? If you try to touch it again I will break your fingers, even if you are our brother!” 

“Calm down Dori, he wasn't doing anything to me, we were just talking. You know that Nori would never do me anything wrong!”

Dori looked at his little brother with a wary look, then looked at the middle brother with an even more frowning look, finally he let go. Nori rubbed his hand with evident annoyance as he backed away from Dori.

“Do your own business, Dori. It's something between me and Ori”

“There's nothing Ori doesn't do or say I don't know. If you want to talk to him, you'll have to talk to me too”

“Dori stop it, I'm an adult now!”

“Are you really convinced of this?” Nori grinned in obvious amusement at Dori “Then you will have noticed how our little brother buzzes around the captain of the Belegost guard. Or were you too busy to be enchanted by the talk of his polite brother?”

Dori took a step forward with the obvious intention of punching Nori's nose, who promptly backed away, but Ori came between them.

“Stop! I don't want you to fight here as you always have in Belegost!” He turned to the ginger dwarf, facing him with a serious frown “I didn't mention your name, Bofur doesn't know that you asked me to write the ticket, nor will he ever know. I am not a spy, and above all I would never betray my brother!”

“Sorry Ori, I shouldn't have doubted you” Nori replied with obvious remorse.

“Wait a minute, was it for that miner? The box you showed me when you came to the store to choose the thread, was it for him? Because he has one like it that he jealously guards in the pocket of his tunic!”

Dori waited for a response from the second son staring at him as if he were a bad toad, but Nori did not have the courage to speak. He looked away and stared at the bark of a tree for a long time trying to calm his agitation. He knew what his older brother was going to tell him and he didn't really want to hear those words. Finally he nodded briefly.

“I knew it! It is from the first time that I have seen that casket in the hand of that young man who I suspect of this thing. With what courage did you do such a thing, Nori? Of all the worst things you could have done, and you have done, this is without a doubt the most heinous!”

“Are you wooing him?” Ori asked timidly trying to calm his brother's screams.

Nori lowered his head down, looked almost like a wounded animal:

“No, I didn't ... I made those presents because Bofur had been robbed and couldn't work without the pickaxe, so-“

“The pickaxe ?!” Dori almost shouted silencing his brother “Of course, I should have understood it from its name engraved on the handle. He could never have written it, but you can! Oh Nori, I have no words!”

But instead of remaining silent like his brothers, Dori continued his monologue ranting against the thief.

“What did you have in mind to do? Indeed no, what are you planning to do now! You are a thief, and even of the worst kind, you were unable to rehabilitate yourself when we asked you, when you no longer needed to steal to survive. Your honor is completely ruined, your respectability never existed, how do you hope to guarantee a future for that poor dwarf?”

He paused for a few moments, trying to calm himself while rubbing his temples with his hands. Ori shifted his gaze from him to the other brother, who looked as though he had been punched in the stomach.

“Listen to me carefully, Nori. As humble as he is, Bofur is a respectable dwarf with an honorable family behind him. I demand that you stop immediately with your games, I absolutely don't want to see it break and torment you for life because of you, not to mention being the victim of retaliation for your criminal life. You don't joke with his feelings just because you're too petty to experience any emotion other than pure lust-“

“I’m not joking!”

Nori's lips moved before his mind could think it wasn't a good idea to expose herself so much, not even in front of his brothers. He tried to catch his breath after his outburst while Ori covered his mouth with his hands and Dori's eyes widened and backed up in disbelief.

“But then you…”

“Nori…”

The thief raised a hand to his mouth to stifle a sob as his eyes began to fill with tears.  
he had broken.  
Something that not even the cruelest guards in Belegost, not even the narrowest and coldest cells, not even the death threats of other criminals had managed to do, and now a few words from his older brother had taken him over the edge. Nori knew perfectly well that Dori was right, that those words were true and that it would probably be wise to try to pretend nothing and forget everything, but he just couldn't.  
He didn't know exactly what he was feeling, but it was something very powerful that was devouring him from within. He was unable to detach himself from the miner, from the idea that he felt well, that just seeing him and being close to him made him happy, but also that all this was no longer enough.

He didn't want to appear weak and cry in front of his brothers, so Nori tried to escape with a sudden jerk, but Dori knew him too well and managed to grab him and hold him in a strong embrace as soon as he took a few steps. Nori tried to free herself but Dori's legendary strength held him tight against his chest. Shortly thereafter Ori joined them, his under arms tightening gently against their backs.

“I never thought this day would come” Dori whispered into the ginger dwarf's hair, his hand slowly stroking his back “By now I was no longer hoping”

Nori surrendered and rested his forehead on his older brother's shoulder as tears began to fall on his cheeks.

“I ... I don't know what to do, Dori” He said in a broken voice. The two Ri brothers were moved to see him so open and defenseless, he who had always been very strong and had done everything to help their family always keeping a smile and a bold attitude, even when he returned home with fractured ribs and face full of bruises. He who had never complained about his choice, who had never given up seeing his happy and healthy brothers, who had sacrificed his whole life for them.

“We will help you, Nori. Don't worry, everything will be fine!”

“Ori is right, we are by your side, you will no longer have to be alone”

“I love you”

*

Bofur sat at the back of the cave leaning against the wall while still staring at the note when his brother and cousin joined him.

“What are you doing?” Bombur asked sitting heavily next to him "What is that piece of paper?"

“It is the note that was inside the casket along with the wire" The miner replied absently.

“Yes I remember, and why are you looking at it? I don't think you are able to read it, as we do”

“No indeed” Bofur agreed with a smile “But I asked Ori to read it for me. It says: never stop smiling. I was able to find out that it was a male and young dwarf who had Ori write it”

The other two dwarfs exclaimed in amazement as they watched the runes written in bright black ink together.

“And you suspect someone we know?” Bombur asked again.

“I have some ideas but I'm not sure”

“You think it was that thief, didn't you?”

Bofur watched his cousin in amazement as he finished signing without words. Bifur didn't want others to listen to their conversation so he decided to use the particular sign language that only a few other dwarves could read.

“How do you do…”

“Know of the thief? I noticed how you look at him when you think you're not seen, also you always seem to be eaten by jealousy when someone other than his brothers sleep beside him at night” He signed again with a pleased smile.

Bofur blushed brightly and looked away from the dwarf who was too keen for his tastes. He thought he had been very discreet in his constant obsessive observation of the thief, but for Bifur he had always been an open book. The disadvantage of having a close-knit family.

“Don't gloat, we already know it wasn't him, it's impossible”

“But Bofur, are you saying you knew Nori before starting this mission?”

Bofur sighed as he gave his brother a tired smile. It was time to tell the whole story from the beginning, or at least from what he thought was the beginning since the times before he was too drunk to remember. So he told his family how he had agreed that he was repeatedly being robbed by a particular dwarf one night that he was not drunk, and how he had pretended to be drunk just to be able to see him. Then he told of the attack, this time without omitting the presence of Nori and finally came the day they found the gifts.  
He tried to be as quiet as possible so as not to allow anyone to overhear their conversation.

“The rest you already know”

“Incredible, and you never told us anything!” Bombur seemed truly offended by this realization, rosy cheeks and pouting mouth. He looked tender and soft even in that state and instead of worrying Bofur moved to look at him.

“I'm sorry Bombur, I didn't want to create embarrassing situations”

“It seems obvious to me that you like him, and also a lot”

“Yes Bifur, I think that's right. Oh Mahal, I don't really know what to do. I have never seen him since that day of the attack, and now that we are together again, I am not worthy of a look. He is always so distant with me, he barely speaks to me, he seems almost unaware that I exist!”

Bofur took his head in his hands and shook it in despair. Bombur tried to reassure him by stroking his back while Bifur was silent for a while.

“In your opinion could it really have been him?” Bombur finally asked, continuing to caress his brother's back reassuringly.

“Really, I do not know. It could be anyone in the neighborhood who matches the description of a young male dwarf! I wish it were him though…”

"I'll try to find out then!" Bifur signed while showing a shark smile.

"And how? Ori doesn't want to tell me the name and I don't think you will be able to convince him "

"No, but I can ask for more about him!" He replied as he glanced towards the rest of the company. The Ri brothers had emerged from the grove and seemed more destroyed than the other. Nori in particular seemed almost to pass out with every step while Ori held him by the arm. Dori looked like someone who had just received some wonderful news but was clouded by the palpable tiredness on his face. They seemed to have argued at length about something and in the end the older brother had won.

"You will see, my cousin, we will soon find out if it was him or not!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For this chapter I have some clarifications to make.  
> First, I thought that since Ori also knows Sindarin, he developed a softer writing style than the angular one of the dwarf runes thus making his writing unique and very recognizable!  
> The second place is the figure of Nori.  
> It is commonplace that Nori is a very capable thief and with a very strong and mocking character. In this story, however, I wanted to represent this character in a more human way (if you can say it for a dwarf), no longer as the perfect representation of the thief, skillful and infallible, but as a person who has discovered that he can help his family by sacrificing his normal life for a criminal. Nori has only known that and in front of normalcy he does not know how to behave, because he has no idea what it means to have a normal life (he was unable to rehabilitate himself when there was an opportunity, as Dori says).   
> I hope that this point of view on this character fascinates you exactly as it fascinates me!


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Camped at the foot of the Carrock, Nori faces fatigue and a difficult situation. And finally the time has come to take a bath.
> 
> Warning: Negative jealousy, but only in thoughts!

Nori sat by the fire with a sigh of relief as he balanced the soup in the bowl. The feeling of the soft grass beneath him and the crackling fire was relaxing and soon Nori managed to ease the tension, even if the adrenaline was still running in his body.  
It had been a night to forget.

The trouble started when they decided to resume their journey to climb the Misty Mountains. In a short time they found themselves in torrential rain that made the narrow passage that flanked the mountain slippery. At least once each risked slipping and falling below, even though it was the hobbit who came very close to it.

The company's bad mood escalated further when they found themselves in the middle of a battle between stone giants. All wonder and irritation were replaced by raw fear when half the company found itself on the legs of a giant and almost risked being crushed against the side of the mountain. Nori lost a few years of life seeing Bofur's desperate gaze as his leg moved away carrying it. The thief could not say whether the screams he heard were his or those of the rest of the company, but when they reunited he almost collapsed in himself for relief. They were all alive, although Thorin had risked a lot to save the hobbit from falling into the ravine below, and they were all back together again.

Nori was so grateful that he completely ignored the concern that Bofur was manifesting for Bilbo as he was joined by his brothers and hugged tightly.

They quickly found shelter and got ready to spend the night. Bofur had the first guard turn and despite the palpable fatigue and the smile that was no longer so great, he positioned himself to watch over others while they rested. Nori crouched near his brothers and fell asleep early, until he was awakened by a soft chatter.

He overheard the discussion between Bofur and Bilbo, and was almost tempted to get up and choke the little creature. His terrible words had hit the miner hard so much was his pained voice. Despite this, Bofur was very kind to the little creature and wished him well and Nori felt his heart beat faster.  
Bofur was such a kind soul, so good and he couldn't help but love him for this.

But then everything went wrong and the company found itself plunging into space and being captured by the goblins in their horrible city. It was a succession of events so fast that Nori also struggled to remember them. The only things he remembered were the growing fear he had felt for his family and Bofur, the escape they had faced to get out of that horrible place thanks to the magician's sudden appearance and the unexpected help he had received from Dwalin.

In the disastrous fall in the precipice on the collapsed bridge, Nori had ended up under some heavy beams. The arrival of the goblin king's lifeless body on their back did not improve the situation, although Bofur had tried to be optimistic. Nori felt his whole body squeezed and he could neither move nor slip away, blocked as he was from all that weight. His ribcage was compressed and he was struggling to breathe, and just when he thought he was going to pass out while the others began to slide out of the scaffolding, some pins were positioned under the beams to lift them and two large hands grabbed him and dragged him out.

With his lungs again swollen with air, even if painful, Nori clung firmly to the body of the other dwarf, who supported him while trying to make him walk.

“Can you run?”

Nori turned to look at him in horror recognizing Dwalin's voice and almost tripped to break away from him, but the dwarf's grip was strong and did not let him go. The thief looked at him with obvious wonder but the look he received in return was not that of a scornful of a guard who had just caught a thief, but of someone who was worried about his companion.

Still shocked by the situation, Nori nodded briefly and Dwalin grunted in response, then pushed him forward with little gentleness. Despite the obvious effort that the giant was making to overcome years and years of enmity and clashes, his abrupt ways of guarding the city had not yet completely disappeared. Nori caught a glimpse of Ori who was smiling warmly at Dwalin before starting to run while a swarm of goblins chased them.

When they were out they had only a few moments to catch their breath and relax, then real hell broke loose.  
They were joined by Azog and his followers, and to save themselves they climbed the trees. It was at that moment that Nori confirmed his persistent thought: the magician was not the almighty being that they believed he was.  
But it was thanks to him if Nori still had his two brothers and if they had managed to escape from those terrible situations, so he could not complain much.

With another sigh, he took the spoon in the bowl and started eating slowly, all the tiredness that began to hit him as the adrenaline began to flow away. They were safe and sound, his brothers were still alive, Bofur was still alive, the head of their company was not dead. Everything was going well and finally the thief could recover from the fright he had felt all night.

Distractedly, he looked up where the hobbit sat next to Thorin, his gaze fixed on the bowl as he ate. His courage in facing Azog had so amazed and impressed the whole company that it had quickly been reevaluated. Above all Thorin had completely changed his mind about him, admitting his mistakes and hugging Bilbo with affection.  
Bilbo had saved his life and Thorin would not have forgotten it.

From that moment, Thorin began to consider Bilbo's presence no longer as an obstacle but as a valuable aid to the mission, beginning to treat him like any other member of the company. The happiness that the hobbit radiated since then was almost blinding, only a fool could not see how much the little creature admired their future king. 

Nori reached out to his side to draw Ori's attention to the half-man, but instead of finding the shoulder of the little brother who had sat next to him, before he only touched the void. Frowning, the thief looked around to find that both his brothers were no longer sitting by his side but had moved.  
When did it happen? He hadn't even noticed he was so tired.

He found Ori next to Dwalin, the latter busy cleaning a little dirt on his cheek with a hem of his tunic. It was a very intimate situation, but instead of getting angry Nori felt only a tired resignation. In the city of goblins, the guard of Belegost had proved that he was a reliable and willing person to put aside old grudges. Even if he didn't like the idea, Nori had neither the strength nor the will to be able to oppose the bond between those two at that time.  
He could let it go for now.

Dori, on the other hand, had moved near Balin, who was amiably chatting with Bifur, and listened in silence to the conversation. Nori did not understand why his older brother felt so much interest in an elderly dwarf like Balin, even though he was a rather pleasant company. But he didn't have the energy to mull over his brother's choices, so Nori concentrated again on his bowl and ate another bite of stew.

In looking at the company in front of him he had not seen Thorin's two nephews and the Ur brothers, but surely they had sat behind him and had no intention of turning to stare at them, even if he was dying to see how the miner was.

Suddenly he heard the sound of something liquid falling to the ground not far from him. Intrigued, he turned back and saw Bofur swaying on himself as his eyes closed and his head dangled. The bowl in his hand was now tilted and the soup was falling to the ground in a trickle of liquid. The miner was so exhausted that he was falling asleep on himself where he was sitting, having no strength to finish the meal or to settle down somewhere to sleep.

Nori got up and quickly pushed him straight when he saw that Bofur closed his eyes for the umpteenth time and fell on his side. The bowl had now fallen to the ground as Bofur's hands relaxed in the dwarf's half-sleep. Nori tried to shake him a little while the miner leaned heavily on him already half asleep.

"Hey Bofur, wake up! At least try to find you a place before falling asleep!"

But he only got one grunt as an answer. Unsure of what to do, he looked around for help.  
His two brothers were engaged in deep conversations with others and when the thief looked at them Ori could not hide a half smile. Dori simply did not return his gaze and continued to speak to Balin, even if the latter did not seem to be saying anything.

Feeling the victim of a plot, Nori sought help from Bofur's relatives to find that Bombur had disappeared somewhere with the excuse of having to clean the pot with which he had cooked, taking the two Durin brothers with him, while Bifur looked at him insistently. Nori returned the confused look and Bifur smiled at him in a disturbing way, then tore some grass from the ground and seasoned the soup in his bowl. Gloin and Oin had already settled down by the fire to sleep, while Thorin was talking to a very excited Bilbo. Gandalf was seated away from the field busy smoking a pipe, his gaze turned to the east lost in who knows what thought. 

Nori frantically looked around for a few more moments, realizing that nobody would help him, then he was drawn to the sound of Bofur's hat falling on the ground. The brown dwarf had now leaned with his head against his chest and had slipped a little to get more comfortable, one of the mustaches and a braid that were spreading over the thief's tunic. 

Nori watched him for long moments without being able to think right.  
Bofur was literally sleeping on top of him, his face half buried in his chest, his breathing becoming more regular. It was so sweet to watch him, Nori felt a feeling of happiness that flooded his chest. Thoughts of how he wanted to hold him close and go to sleep and cuddle him and keep him warm all night invaded his mind and wondered what it would have been like to wake up with him next to him.

He looked around quickly to make sure he wasn't seen as he stroked the miner's head and cheek with a trembling hand. The moment he looked up Ori seemed to be interested with sudden passion in the axes that Dwalin was sharpening, asking him many questions one after the other without waiting for an answer to an increasingly confused Dwalin. Dori instead began to laugh and congratulate Balin for the joke, even if the old dwarf looked at him without understanding and with a forced smile. Bifur put the now empty bowl on his head and started digging on the ground with his spoon muttering in khuzdul.

In other circumstances, Nori would have immediately noticed the disappointing attempts of those dwarves to camouflage the fact that they were staring at him and Bofur, but at that moment the thief was really very tired and all his concentration was directed to the miner who was sleeping leaning against him.

Bofur's hair was so soft to the touch, albeit dirty because of all they had to face that night, and Nori found himself removing some leaves left hanging on a braid that usually protruded from under the hat. The mustache, on the other hand, was so funny, the thief curled one of his fingers as he stroked his pink cheek with the back of his hand.

When did it happen?  
When had he started experiencing these new and unknown feelings for this dwarf?  
He was a miner, one of many in Belegost, and one of the many victims of his pickpockets, he was neither noble nor rich and he was not a warrior. But then why him?  
Nori thought about the smile and the gaze clouded by alcohol but full of expectation from the miner when he offered him something to drink.  
Maybe it had been at that moment, or maybe when he had seen him so destroyed in that alley, suffering from the beating and his ruined future. Or maybe long before, when he first saw that funny hat on the inn door and his fantastic wide smile under his mustache.

Thorin's voice saluting Gandalf's return alerted the thief who immediately stopped pampering the miner and took him by the shoulders by putting him back and waving him gently.

"Bofur! Bofur wake up, at least let's go near the fire!"

Bofur murmured something incomprehensible as his head continued to fall forward, then slowly opened his eyes blinking several times.

“No…ri?” He mumbled with his mouth kneaded as he looked at him trying to make his way through the haze of sleep, then awareness struck him and his eyes opened completely.

“What…?” He exclaimed as he tried to get away, but Nori held him in position before he fell backwards.

“You fell asleep on your soup. Let’s find a place near the fire, you will sleep better there"

Bofur nodded as the adrenaline rush to recognize Nori dissipated quickly, leaving him tired again. He staggered to his feet and the thief helped him get to the fire by supporting him by the arm. Bofur was visibly red in the face but said nothing as the ginger dwarf helped him sit not too far from Gloin and Oin.

"Here, lie here" 

"My hat?"

"Here. Use it as a pillow so you can sleep better "

Nori placed the hat under Bofur's head as he lay down. As soon as he rested his head, Bofur felt his whole body become heavy and his mind sliding back into unconsciousness. With one last effort he managed to turn to one side and cover Nori's hand that rested on the grass with his.

"Thanks ... Nori ..." He whispered before falling asleep.

Nori was about to respond when Fili and Kili's playful screams rang out in the camp and the two brothers hurried to reach Nori, a coin in each hand.

"Nori, Nori! Teach us that trick with the coins you showed us at Rivendell, please!"

“Yes please, we couldn't understand how it works!"

From behind them Bombur approached Bifur, who in a fit of anger screamed something in an incomprehensible khuzdul and threw the bowl to the ground.

*

Nori had made a lot of mistakes in his life.  
Some were nonsense, others had been done consciously, while only a few had been serious and irreparable.  
This was one of those.

Beorn's house was welcoming even though their host was disturbing and always surly. Despite his grumpy character, the skinchanger proved to be a person with great sensitivity and kindness and allowed the company not only to stay and regain strength, but also to take advantage of his food and the warmth of his fire.  
The farm where he lived was also inhabited by huge animals with strange behaviors, beings that greatly disturbed the dwarves and from which they tried to stay as far as possible. Only Ori was genuinely interested in those creatures and always tried to portray them in his notebook, while Bifur tried to hunt bees as big as a punch to eat them when he had those moments of madness.

The company had felt really comfortable in that place and the general mood had risen so as to make them playful and playful. Songs and games could be heard and seen at any hour of the day, while in the evening they enjoyed bivouacking and telling various stories to entertain themselves.  
It was two days after their arrival, when they had settled in and relaxed enough to feel safe in those places, that Nori mentioned the river he had seen not far from the farm when they were running to reach it.

They were sitting at Beorn's huge table, busy eating a hearty breakfast when Nori pointed this out to Dori, who was complaining again about the unpleasant feeling of dirt in his hair. Immediately the company fell silent at those words, then began to murmur approval. Everyone wanted to wash the stink of goblins away from their bodies and clothes.

So it was that Nori found himself going to the river ready for a long and satisfying swim to discover that the rest of the company had preceded him and played with joy near the shore.  
He quickly stripped of his clothes and dived into the icy water, grateful that the current washed away travel days on his skin. Soon his hair became a long reddish tangle as his beard untied himself in long braids. When his hair wasn't tied it looked like a weeping willow, so long and tangled. He rubbed them well while around him he heard screams and splashes of water, especially by the two Durin brothers as they chased each other.

When Nori finished washing his head and beard, he found a point where the water was deeper and he immersed himself almost completely, leaving only half his head out. He looked like an octopus while his hair swarmed around him, the water that came up to his nose.  
In that way, he began to look aside on the company as usual, hoping to identify a particular dwarf that he had not yet seen.

Fili and Kili kept splashing the water on themselves as they ran among the other dwarfs, sometimes tripping and ending up immersed in water. They laughed like crazy and spread good humor to the rest of the company. They were checked visually by Balin and Oin who sat comfortably in the shallow water and smoked a pipe. Nori thought he heard phrases like "In my day" or "I remember as a young dwarf" from their chatter, and quickly looked away bored. Instead he paused to watch how Gloin was challenging Dwalin to fight with his bare hands, the first one to land the other would win. The two worked hard, but in the end it was Dwalin who won. His screams of victory attracted the attention of Dori and especially Ori.

Nori narrowed his eyes to see how Ori was shamelessly staring at Dwalin celebrating the victory, while Dori tried in vain to cover his field of vision and wash his head. The little boy always managed to slip out of his brother's grasp and to look obsessively at the warrior, who when he realized he was staring back he returned with a smile. Dori muttered something and pulled his younger brother behind him, glancing at the other dwarf as he forcefully dipped Ori's head underwater and rubbed his hair.

Seeing Dori with loose hair and beard was not a common sight and initially everyone was amazed when he showed up with his beautiful free mithril hair, a legacy of their mother.  
There was little to do, the Ri brothers were exaggeratedly beautiful and Nori was pleased with this thought.

Dwalin continued to cast brief curious glances in the direction of Ori, who in the meantime was being molested by his brother who wanted to help him wash, and Nori wrinkled his nose. He was stroking the idea of going to him and hitting him in the face with a punch, when he finally saw him.

His mind went blank and his mouth went dry despite being underwater when he finally saw Bofur emerge from behind a couple of large boulders placed in the middle of the river, swimming awkwardly backwards.  
But anger seized the thief when he saw that he was not alone.  
Behind Bofur hurried a clumsy Bilbo who could barely stay afloat. Bofur joined him and spoke to him, then took his hands and dragged him with him trying to make him swim properly.

Nori was seething with anger as he watched them laugh and joke, the miner who helped Bilbo swim while the latter ended up underwater with each stroke. Nori found himself hating Bilbo and calling him a fool who couldn't even float.  
In fact, most dwarves did not know how to swim and were not interested in learning, apart from a few exceptions like him who had learned by necessity, and few were able to do so in Belegost. He just couldn't understand why a miner like Bofur could swim, even if so roughly.

Bilbo tried to stay afloat and clung to Bofur as if his life depended on it -and maybe it was just like that- but Nori hoped in his heart that it would slip and end up underwater, never emerging again. Jealousy was so great that it prompted him to have very negative thoughts about the life of the little hobbit, many of whom included his alleged mysterious disappearance.  
Obviously, he noticed how the halfling was looking insistently towards Thorin who, flanked by Bombur and Bifur, was washing himself in silence rubbing his skin with pumice stone that Beon had given him.  
But Bofur had only eyes for him and that was what Nori hated more than anything else.

As he brooded, he pulled back his hair that covered his face with a quick gesture making a loud noise in the water. This attracted the attention of Gloin who called him strong to join their struggles. Nori accepted willingly, a good fight would have been an excellent outlet for his furious jealousy. He forced himself not to look at Bofur and Bilbo playing together, instead he concentrated on fighting Gloin.

They challenged each other for a long time, Gloin relying on strength, Nori on his impressive ability to maintain balance in every way. But while they were focused on each other, Dwalin looking to arbitrate when he wasn't too busy inspecting Ori, Fili and Kili ran close to them, overwhelming the thief.

While chasing his brother, Fili slipped on a smooth stone of the river bed and crashed into Nori just as he freed himself from Gloin's attempt to push him to the ground. The violent clash made the thief lose his balance and made him fall underwater. To try to protect himself, the ginger dwarf leaned with his hands on the stones of the river, finding a pointed one and injuring himself on a palm. He got up painfully as his hand began to bleed, the two Durin brothers approaching worried and full of guilt.  
But they were quickly pushed aside when a chubby Dori showed up in obvious agitation, his inner mother hen emerging with arrogance. Immediately, he began to fill Nori with concern and questions, who meanwhile could not stand all that concern for a small scratch, but Dori showed no sign of stopping. He called Oin and Nori's bathroom abruptly ended up becoming a medical session with the old deaf dwarf yelling at him all the best ways to suture a wound while visiting him on the river bank.

At least Nori was amply rewarded when Thorin decided it was time to return to Beorn and all the dwarves started to come out of the water. The little Durins made sure he was fine, then hurried to get their clean clothes and change. Nori paid them little attention as Oin bandaged his hand -he carried the medical kit really everywhere-, his eyes glued to a single dwarf. 

Bofur was coming out of the water while talking to Bilbo and finally the thief could see him in all his glory. His eyes wandered over his body many times, focusing on certain points that he burned into his mind. Yes, that vision would have accompanied him for a long time, especially in those moments he dedicated to himself when he was alone.  
He was simply splendid, beautiful and Nori would never tire of looking at him.

The urge to get up and to pass his hands over that whole body, to bite that delicate skin, to hold him close and do many other less innocent things was so strong that the thief had to bite the inside of his cheek and look away, but a moment later he was back there looking at him. Evidently, Bofur had not noticed his injury so much he was busy saving the pathetic life of the hobbit in the shallow water of the river and went quickly to his brothers to get dressed. Nori closed his eyes sighing when he saw the dwarf turn around to get his tunic.  
He wouldn't have forgotten that ass easily, oh no.

"Oh sorry, did I hurt you?" Oin asked as he tied the tight bandage and let him go.

"No, no… thanks!" The thief replied as he got up.

"Oh laddie, I can't cure this other kind of problem, I'm sorry”

Nori blazed as he watched what Oin was pointing between his legs, whirling around and running towards his clothes.  
Once again the ability to dress quickly proved to be very useful.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nori doesn't hate Bilbo, I don't hate Bilbo, indeed I love it too much and soon you will find out, don't be alarmed!!
> 
> Ok assured this point, I wanted to tell you that I had a lot of fun writing the plot of the plot against Nori xD Yes, because I imagined the two families who without knowing each other did the exact same things, forcing those two poor idiots to interact in this way. Above all, I loved their clumsy attempts to camouflage their attention on Nori and his actions, even Bifur pretended a moment of madness in order not to ruin the moment xD xD xD  
> I loved when he in the end threw the bowl cursing in Khuzdul, because it showed how all his hard work and dignity had been thrown to the wind because of the innocent Durin brothers!  
> Next chapter will be spicy, eh eh... As a mature target allows, of course.
> 
> To conclude, I am thinking of writing the descriptions of the characters of this fanfiction as I imagined them on tumblr, because it is true that in films they are characterized very well, but I decided to add or remove something in writing this story. If you are interested in learning more, ask on tumblr :)  
> My tumblr is: https://estethell.tumblr.com


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things get hot!!

Ori stopped as soon as the trees grew thinner, choosing one to lie down under. He crouched against the tree trunk and sighed with relief as he listened to the water of the river flowing nearby.  
It was so relaxing.

Finally, after lunch Thorin had promised them the free afternoon to be able to spend the time as they liked. After the hot morning that the company had spent in the river to bathe, many dwarves hurriedly vanished into thin air. Even Thorin mentioned some greetings and walked around the corner of the house disappearing from view as if chased by some warg.

Ori had to work hard to sneak out of Dori's constant presence, taking advantage of the fact that he was busy preventing a large cow from eating a piece of his backpack. Quickly, the scribe ran out of the barn where they slept and went to the small grove next to Beorn's house to find some privacy.  
He really needed it.

Since the morning, in fact, from that damned bathroom where the whole company had been naked for hours, Ori had an urgent need to solve a problem that had formed between his legs and that it really didn't want to leave. He had tried to chase him away in various ways, especially by thinking about unpleasant things, but he hadn't succeeded and now it had become something painful. Fortunately, Ori always wore his very large wool sweater and this allowed him to hide his obvious bulge from Dori's inquisitive eyes.

With a sigh, the young dwarf stroked the bulge of his pants as he thought about the root cause of his problem: Dwalin.  
The warrior had been in his thoughts for many years, since the first time he had seen him while visiting his brother in prison. Since then he had remained a fixed thought in the scribe's mind, a thought that had never left. Ori began to rejoice secretly when his brother Nori was arrested and imprisoned only for the excuse for being able to look at the captain of the guards again without raising suspicions. It was a petty thought, especially about Nori, but the young dwarf couldn't help it. And when he found out that his teacher Balin was Dwalin's brother, one day he saw the guard show up in the old dwarf's house to visit him, Ori's happiness almost overflowed from his slender body because he had another reason to meet the dwarf.

But it was when he learned from Balin of Thorin's mission and the fact that both brothers would participate that Ori finally managed to find the courage to make his move. He insistently prayed to his mentor to convince Thorin to welcome him into the company, all to be able to be with Dwalin, to be able to travel alongside him and to have the opportunity to establish a relationship with him.

Ori rubbed his hand more insistently on his crotch area as he thought of the morning bath. He had felt like a hungry animal when he saw the naked warrior enter the water and start washing.  
His body, his huge muscles, those tattoos, his strong legs, but above all other rather intimate parts, Ori had carefully observed everything trying to impress every single detail on his mind. Or at least until Dori noticed his persistent looks and tried to cover his view by helping him wash.

Despite his brother's overwhelming presence, Ori had managed to get a good view of Dwalin struggling with Gloin. He had caressed all the contracted muscles of his arms and legs with his eyes, lingering for a long time on his lower back while biting his lower lip.  
Oh Mahal, he was really boiling at that moment and when Dwalin returned his smile he feared he could come just at that precise moment. Luckily, Dori pushed him underwater to wash his hair, so he could hide the strong redness all over his face.

Tired of making fun of himself, his hand reached the laces of his pants and quickly melted them, freeing his painful erection and starting to work seriously on it.  
Ori could not say whether these reactions were completely normal or were his own peculiarity. He had never been in a relationship, and apart from his brothers he had never seen other naked dwarves. But judging by how comfortable the others were despite the fact that they were facing each other naked, it was Ori who was the odd one.

According to the various books he had read on the subject, the attraction that someone felt for someone else often pushed people to experience completely new sensations and physical reactions. Ori had never experienced this before, not even for his peers, but now perhaps he could understand what those books meant.

As his touches became more insistent, his mind began to digress about Dwalin and how he would have liked to try those things that both Dori and Nori had told him many years before. Dori had given him a dramatic speech on the relationship between dwarves, making its pass for something of vital importance and of great seriousness, terrorizing the little scribe to death. Nori instead described it as a game, as something beautiful and necessary as breathing, and urged him to try as soon as possible with whoever he wanted.  
He still didn't know exactly who to listen to, but at that moment it didn't matter, he only knew that he wanted Dwalin.

He wanted to stay in his arms, feel the warmth of his skin, caress those tense muscles and kiss him as if their life depended on it. He wanted to be tight against his broad chest and finally he wanted to feel it in him, to make love many times and then to pamper himself before falling asleep.  
It was all romance novel things he had read in the library, but the books always told the truth, didn't they?

He increased the speed of his hand as he imagined Dwalin's lips kissing him everywhere and saying sweet words to him, while his big hands caressed his hips and shoulders. He imagined its sweet and kind because he knew that under that hard zest there was a good soul, but the thought that Dwalin was actually a little rough and that he would take it without too much delicacy made him moan.  
His thoughts quickly changed in him being pushed against an unidentified surface while the other dwarf took him without too much kindness from behind, his hands gripping his hips painfully while saying dirty things to his ear.

Finally, Ori came with thick white ropes on his hand as he moaned imagining how Dwalin pinned him and told him it was his. The scribe panted hard as he found himself nodding in response to the words of his imaginary Dwalin.  
He tried to calm down while wiping his hand with a handkerchief, thankful that no one had looked for him at that moment, especially Dori who had a tendency to always interrupt him while he was taking care of himself.  
He didn't know what happened to the rest of the company, but he didn't care at the time.

He allowed himself a few more minutes of rest as he tried to gather his thoughts, then adjusted his trousers and started to return to Beorn's house, a tired satisfied smile on his face and a great desire to see the warrior.

*

Thorin sat on an upturned pot in Beorn's garden, smoking his long pipe.  
The afternoon sun was strong despite the season and the king without the mountain was enjoying the warm rays on his finally soft and clean hair.  
He snorted clouds and a few rings of smoke as he listened to the chatter and laughter of Bilbo and Bombur sitting on the lawn. Bifur was lying on the grass next to his cousin and dozing.

His eyes rarely parted from the figure of the little hobbit, especially when he caught him laughing for a few sentences of the ginger dwarf. They were talking about food and how to cook it, speeches that Thorin cared little about, the only thing worthy of note was the halfling who tore flowers from the grass to distractly compose a garland.

That little hobbit had been truly a surprise, so delicate and defenseless but which hid a courage and a strong soul worthy of the greatest warriors. Thorin had underestimated and disparaged him, treated like a stick in the wheels more than a good member of the company, good more for the home environment than for adventure. Certainly he had noticed his delicate beauty, he was not blind or stupid, but they didn't need someone who could be mistaken for a sweet girl in the company. But things changed radically when Bilbo risked his life to save Thorin's, when no one else had had the courage to do it.

From that moment Thorin saw Bilbo in a different light and the latter acquired a completely new charm for him. In his eyes he was no longer a sweet and plump being, soft and weak, a race of comfort in all senses, but a valid companion on whom he could rely.  
And Thorin fell victim to what they called a lightning attraction.

He continued to puff smoke and watch the pleasant show in the garden, until he was joined by Dwalin who sat down heavily on the grass next to him.  
The warrior seemed tired but satisfied, the sweat still beading his skin and shortness of breath.

"I haven't been training that much since we left Belegost!" He said with a smile on his face as he wiped his forehead with one of his big hands.

Thorin nodded, watching him out of the corner of his eye as he passed his pipe, which was accepted willingly.

“Recovering Erebor has the highest priority and we cannot waste time, but after the latest events it was right to allow the company an free afternoon. We don't know what awaits us and perhaps this could be the last moment of tranquility for us!"

"Yes I agree. Orcs, elves, dragons, there are many out there who want to skin us!" Dwalin agreed as he blew a cloud of smoke “We will tear them apart one by one. Nobody will stand between us and the mountain!"

Thorin laughed at Dwalin's determination, but was truly grateful. Despite all the misfortunes they had experienced, the warrior had never given up and had always fought with all his energy, secretly instilling hope in Thorin too.

“It's just that I don't think we can all get to the mountain alive. Many of us are inexperienced, some slightly more than children, others ...” He looked sadly at Bilbo who placed the garland on Bombur's head and laughed “"... they are not even warriors. I fear especially for Bilbo, Kili is so young, and Ori-“

“We will protect them!”

Thorin turned to look at the warrior who emptied his pipe on the ground and returned it to him.

“We will protect them at any cost” He continued holding up Oakenshield's gaze “I don't intend to lose any of them, we will all come together to chase that filthy worm from the mountain and take it back!”

The fervor with which Dwalin said those words greatly surprised Thorin. Sure, he had noticed his progressive attachment to the younger brother of the Ri family, but he never thought that this had affected the dwarf so much. He who was one of those warriors who believed that if you were not up to par then you were considered a ballast for the group and you had to be dismissed immediately.  
He smiled at his lifelong friend and went back to looking at the lawn and especially Bilbo.

"Yes you are right. We'll make sure we can all do it,” He said as he picked up the pipe.

*

Balin stretched one leg while massaging a muscle with his hands. He was no longer used to that hectic and adventurous lifestyle, although he had done it for most of his life having been a good warrior in the service of the Kings of Erebor. But he simply was no longer age to do such things.

Sighing, he positioned himself correctly on the large bench he had found behind the house, a structure suitable for the size of the skinchanger and on which the dwarf had struggled to climb. At least he could swing his legs freely, a real cure for his sore feet and tight muscles. He had asked Oin for some herb to ease his pain, maybe something to boil to make a decoction, and Oin had promised him that he would look for some in the well-stocked garden of their host.  
Oin was a good dwarf, very professional, and above all very old and he could fully understand the discomforts that Balin was feeling.

He closed his eyes leaning back on the bench while enjoying the sun's rays on the skin and the sounds of nature. But it didn't last long because he was joined shortly after by a muttering Dori.

"Ah Balin, then you were here! Did you happen to see Ori? That brat managed to escape from under my nose as soon as I got distracted for a moment, it's really a plague. I should tie him to me so I don't lose sight of him!"

The old dwarf smiled when he saw Dori's round shape approaching. He was so graceful with his well-groomed mithril-colored hair, round rosy cheeks, curves well pronounced in the right places. He was a dwarf of rare beauty, but he made up for it with a bad temper. Balin loved him so much, both with brotherly love and with romantic love, but he couldn't help feeling sad whenever the dwarf decided to spend time with him.

"He's just a boy, Dori, let him live his youth as he sees fit. Ori is a conscientious dwarf and with his head on his shoulders, I don't think you have to worry"

Dori pouted at the words, but still reached Balin and clumsily climbed onto the bench. Balin watched the scene amused and fascinated as the dwarf mithril sat down next to him, his arms crossed over his chest.

"I know Ori is an intelligent dwarf, but he's too naive and I'm afraid he'll get into some trouble where I won't be able to help him-"

"Easy Dori, we are protected here. There is no reason to be agitated, let him walk with his feet. He is now an adult and he is also the official scribe of the company, you cannot always watch over him"

"Yes I can!" Dori exclaimed, but from his attitude Balin understood that Dori had understood the point of the matter, even if he struggled to accept it.

The old dwarf smiled as he looked at him, remembering when he too was perpetually anxious about that rebel of his brother who always got into trouble. Dwalin had always been a very rough and incredibly prone to brawl, and Balin often had to intervene to quell the hot spirits before finding his brother massacred by groups of angry dwarves. He understood Dori's behavior perfectly, but in spite of this he really thought he should stop behaving like a mother hen.

“You remind me of me when I was young and struggling with Dwalin. He was rather inclined to resolve every question with his fists rather than with words, over time it has changed even if not too much"

Dori came out of his proud air and looked with a frown at the white-haired dwarf.

“This does nothing but increase my concern. Did you notice that your brother started buzzing around my little Ori persistently? I don't like this situation at all!"

"Actually, I dare say it is Ori who constantly turns around him looking for any excuse to attract his attention," Balin laughed in reply.

“Not my little Ori! He could never be interested in an energumen like him!" Then he seemed to take his words back when he realized they were talking about Balin's brother “Sorry, it's just that I'm very worried about Ori. You know he's never been in a relationship, he doesn't know what it means, and he's so small and delicate. I fear that Dwalin will eat it in one bite"

At these words Balin laughed heartily, making Dori frown more.

“I can understand your fear, Dwalin is really intimidating, but trust me when I tell you that he hides a very tender side. He hides it very well but there is also a very strong moral code that he respects literally, like the good city guard he was. You believe me when I tell you that he would never dare to hurt Ori, not even by mistake, and I don't say it because I'm his brother but because I know him well”

Dori seemed to weigh his words for a few moments, then relaxed visibly as he nodded and took Balin's hand in his.

"I want to believe you," he said as he looked him in the eye with a sweet look and a smile. 

Balin could no longer hide his anguish. He took his hand from Dori's, leaving the other dwarf confused, and sat up straight with his hands in his lap while keeping his gaze fixed on the ground. 

"Dori, why me?" A moment of silence ensued due to the confusion of the other dwarf, so Balin took the opportunity to continue "You are a beautiful dwarf, you do an excellent job, you could have any dwarf at your feet to offer you whatever you want, but you continue to waste time with an old man like me"

His words hurt him more than the other dwarf. He had lived a long life full of joys and sorrows, he had loved so much and had been loved so much, but he had lost everything and the idea of starting again frightened him. Besides, he didn't really know what he could offer to a young and beautiful dwarf like Dori, he who was a dwarf of the past, that pain and suffering had affected forever, too old to offer a happy life to his companion.  
He waited with death in his heart for an answer from Dori, who did not come. Instead, he felt the other dwarf's hands take his and hold them tight as he smiled and looked at him with adoring eyes.

“I had a difficult life, I had to raise my two brothers in hunger and fear of seeing them die or worse. Fear that materialized a little when Nori decided to become what he has become. I am fortunate to have inherited my mother's beauty, and in my life I have had so many courtship proposals that I cannot count them. But I refused them all because I didn't want to separate from my family, everyone wanted to divide us"

He paused as he sighed as memories crowded into his mind, but a squeeze of Balin's hands allowed him not to get overwhelmed by them. He pursed his lips and continued shortly thereafter.

“As soon as they found out about Nori, everyone tried to push me to cut bonds with him. Furthermore, nobody wanted to take on the burden of providing Ori, who was still small at the time. But then you came” Dori's smile grew wider “You welcomed Ori as an apprentice with the minimum wage expected by the guild - no, don't try to deny, Nori inquired- and you guided him like he was your family member. And when you learned about Nori, instead of despising him, you simply laughed at the irony that your brother was the captain of the city guard. It's true, many dwarves tried to woo me by offering me everything, but only you gave me what I really wanted: you accepted my family, and I can't help but love you for it. Therefore, even if you decide not to accept my love, I will continue to experience it all the same until I have life”

Finally, Dori remained silent and swallowed with difficulty, the anxiety of having exposed himself so much that it gripped his stomach. He was afraid of receiving a rejection of his veiled declaration of love but was tired of not being able to openly express his feelings to Fundin's eldest son. He would accept without discussing any decision Balin would make, contenting himself with having at least one friendship with the dwarf.  
He heard Balin sigh as his hands began to tremble.

"Dori, I ..." He choked a little, the emotion was evident on his face "Oh, laddie ..." He whispered as he returned the eyes of the tailor with shining eyes.

It was all Dori needed. He embraced the dwarf with abandon, holding him close to him, trying to measure his immense strength so as not to hurt him. They clung to each other for a long time, Balin caressed Dori's back while the latter basked in the warmth of the embrace.  
Finally, when they left, Dori placed a soft, chaste kiss on Balin's lips.

*

Nori looked around for the umpteenth time to make sure no one was watching him as he sneaked into Beorn's tool shed. It was a small wooden construction, at least for the skinchanger as a dwarf could comfortably stand on it and still have room to jump. It was located next to the barn and was full of tools of all kinds, as well as a pile of jute bags for fruit collection. Nori took care to lock the door so that it could not be opened from the outside and curled up on the soft sacks, one hand already inside his pants to deal with his showy excitement.

Damn him and when he suggested bathing in the river.  
The image of Bofur swimming, coming out of the water, getting dressed, in short, doing anything naked, constantly jumped in front of his eyes and did not leave him alone. Because of this, he had felt deeply humiliated when Oin noticed his problem and declared that he had no cure for that.  
Cursed him and his sarcasm too, as if he had never had that kind of reaction in his long life!

He had been extremely excited all day, a situation so uncomfortable that it had prompted him to decide to carve out a space for himself in the afternoon, to hell the company and the quest. But luckily Thorin had given everyone half a day free and could devote himself entirely to his personal satisfaction rather than a quick and unsatisfactory release.

He quickly untied the laces of his pants with his other hand, careful not to irritate the still fresh cut under the bandages.He immediately began to work on his excitement with abandon, his mind wandering about all the scenes he had seen concerning the miner. 

Oh Mahal, it would have been his death, Nori was sure of it.  
He focused on the image of him coming out of the water, how his wet and loose hair fell on his shoulders, how wet skin shone in the sunlight. He imagined taking him at that precise moment in front of everyone, claiming him as his while making him moan with pleasure and scream his name. But the thought immediately died in his mind as he was born so crazy and frankly questionable. He would not have shared the sight of Bofur lost in pleasure with anyone else.

Then he thought about his plans for when they would claim Erebor, while working on his increasingly swollen excitement. With his share he would open a nice inn and create the largest underground gambling den in the mountains under his strict moral rules. It was a glorious project, but at the time he was not in the least thinking about his future as the top of the underworld of Erebor, rather he was thinking about the quality of the tables and the counter that would adorn the place.  
Qualities that he would certainly have tested with Bofur.

Quickly, the electrifying image of the miner bending over one of those tables formed in his mind, totally naked and with only that funny hat on his head, who looked at him with anticipation, his gaze already lost in pleasure while panting.  
Nori bit his lower lip moaning at that idea.  
Oh yes, he would have bowed the brown dwarf on every single table in the inn, would have made him scream with pleasure and moan as he had never done in his life. He wanted to hear his name coming out of his lips, to hear how it was vocal only thanks to him, to hear him beg for that and much more.  
Then they would test the counter.  
He imagined he would sit the miner on it while leaving an absurd amount of marks on his neck and shoulders, and then he would go to hear him moan again.

Nori could not remain silent while he finally freed himself. He sighed with pure pleasure as he stretched out on the stained bags and tried to catch his breath. It had been such an intense release that it left Nori breathless.  
The ginger dwarf wiped his forehead with the back of his hand as he got up on his elbows. He had to hurry to get out of there, the skinchanger could find it at any time and Mahal only knew what he could have done if he had found his cabin door locked. 

He sat up and accidentally placed his weight on the injured hand. A twinge of pain ran through his arm as he raised it abruptly, the still fresh cut throbbing angry. Dori was right, it wasn't just a scratch as he had minimized that morning, it was a real cut that had to heal well and that probably would have left a thin scar on his hand.

“Ah shit, damn Fili!” He exclaimed as usual. He used to curse those responsible for his injuries, an extravagant and colorful way to try to demonize pain. 

He hurriedly straightened his pants and unlocked the door to sneak away as the urge to eat something sweet crept into his mind still facing the miner.

*

Bofur was enjoying the warmth of the sun on the roof of Beorn's house while all around him he heard the chatter of the rest of the company scattered in the garden. It was a really unusual place to rest, but Bofur had found it very interesting and also very private. He had managed to climb thanks to the large staircase resting on one side of the house, and despite the dizziness he had experienced, he had pleasantly settled next to several empty bird's nests. From that point, Bofur had a perfect view of the whole garden even though nobody could see it because nobody would have dreamed of looking up to see what was on the roof of the house.

Bofur stretched against the hot red wooden scaffolding, a tired and satisfied smile on his face. Finally he felt clean, even if a little defenseless because of the lack of his hat, which had been washed and hung out to dry with his other clothes. Besides, he had looked after his needs time before, twice, and now he was resting before going down for dinner. He was not a fool and knew that the company had been busy exactly like him, so he knew that they would have dinner very soon tired as they were and eager for a good night's sleep.  
Above all, he really wanted to lie on his straw mattress and sleep for days, at least to seek some peace from the memories of a naked Nori who fought against Gloin. 

Busy as he was trying to teach Bilbo to swim, he hadn't noticed the thief's arrival and when he finally saw him he stared at him for so long that almost the hobbit really drowned. When he finally made sure that the little creature was safe, the thief had gone to the shore to chat with Oin and he hadn't had a chance to watch him anymore. But it didn't matter, what he had seen was enough and would have been a good material for many days to come.

He sat up curious when he heard Thorin and Dwalin chat, a rare scene to see as both dwarfs were not prone to socialization, then he was drawn to another movement across the house.  
Nori was walking quickly to the tool shed with a suspicious attitude. He looked around several times and then closed himself inside, not noticing that he was being observed from above.

Bofur leaned slightly from the roof to get a better view of the shed, but he didn't hear any noise from the wooden structure.  
Questions and doubts began to crowd in his head, wondering what he was doing in there, because he was afraid of being followed, and especially if he was alone.  
The last thought gave him a strong feeling of anguish that never went away, so he decided to get off the roof and approach the shed.

He tried to be as quiet as possible as he came down the rungs of the ladder, then slowly approached the less visible side of the shed, trying to spy on the cracks in the uneven beams. His vision was very small due to the small crack, but he managed to see an environment full of tools and a pile of jute bags. Above the pile he saw a figure lying down, probably Nori, and seemed to be alone. Unfortunately, he looked from a strange angle and could only see part of the dwarf's profile, but he still managed to understand what he was unequivocally doing.

Although he had enjoyed himself twice, Bofur found himself excited as he listened to the noises Nori was making. Quick breaths, small moans, various murmurs that were burning in Bofur's ears like molten metal.  
This would add to the material he already had to make his fantasies more realistic and enjoyable.

He stood there spying like a maniac all the time, then Nori seemed to suddenly squirm and his noises faded. Bofur trembled as he bit his lower lip, squeezing himself as much as possible against the wood of the boards, trying to widen his view unsuccessfully, eager to see more.

Then Nori exclaimed something that hit Bofur like a landslide in a mine.  
His hands tightened on the boards until they turned white while the name of Fili echoed several times in his ears.  
Fili, the crown prince, Thorin's nephew, the self-confident dwarf and handsome as the sun, well-liked by all. 

Bofur couldn't hold back a bitter laugh as he lowered his incredulous gaze, his eyes already filling with tears.  
Of course, how had he not thought about it before?  
Fili was perfect, he had everything a dwarf could wish for, and he would have had even more when they recovered Erebor. He was the center of Nori's thoughts, it could not be otherwise.  
It could not have been a miserable miner that the only thing he could offer was a shabby beer in a suburban inn.

Bofur slumped against the boards, kneeling as his hands filled with splinters rubbing on the wood, resting his forehead on the wall.  
How could he have been so foolish not to notice? That was why Nori almost avoided him, because his mind was already occupied by another dwarf.  
Someone with whom he could never compare.

Bofur sobbed and wept bitterly as the sun went down over the horizon and Bombur started calling the company to prepare for dinner.

*

The dwarves ate everything Bombur had put on the table, even the vegetables Bilbo had insisted on cooking. It was like seeing creatures hungry for months that finally managed to get their hands on some food. This made Bombur proud because, as always, the company appreciated his cuisine.

Only Bofur and Bifur ate very little, the first for some reason that Bombur still did not know, the second because he was going through one of those famous and terrible moments of madness and had preferred to eat the hay of cows. Bombur had tried to snatch it from his hands, but Bifur had insisted with ferocity and in the end the ginger dwarf had let him chew the dry stems with resignation.

When the meal was over, the dwarves moved all around the fireplace to warm themselves, some chatting amiably, others listening or silently watching the fire. Bofur was one of the latter, sitting on the sidelines and his mind absorbed in who knows what thought. He had his hands open in his lap and a slight smile on his lips which Bombur recognized as false. His brother always wore that kind of smile when he had to hide his pain.

He was considering sitting next to him and talking to him when Bifur suddenly got up and started wandering around the room screaming in Khuzdul and frantically looking around.

“Where’s Bofur?” He was screaming at the top of his lungs as he asked the other incredulous dwarves "Where's my cousin?"

Bofur jumped up and knelt beside him trying to get his attention.

"Here, Bifur. It's me, do you recognize me? I'm Bofur!"

But Bifur looked at him with a frown and walked away from him.

“I don't know who the hell you are, get out! Where is your brother? I have to look for him, he's lost!" He signed and screamed as he addressed Bombur, whom he evidently recognized as his relative.

Bofur sighed heavily and went to sit again in his little place on the sidelines.

"It's amazing, don't you recognize your cousin?" Gloin exclaimed as he watched as Bifur continued to fret over Bofur's lack of company.

“When he has these moments of madness he doesn't recognize him if he doesn't wear his hat. This is why Bofur hardly ever takes it off” Bombur explained as he forced Bifur into a chair “One time, when we were still in Belegost, Bifur was about to attack him because he had mistaken him for a robber. He wasn't wearing his hat at the time” 

Oin nodded thoughtfully, then stood up and joined the mad dwarf.

“Listen to me Bifur, I'm Oin. Bofur has gone on his guard turn, he is outside the house checking the perimeter. He'll be back for the change tonight. Do you understand what I said?" He said in a soft, slow voice, as if he were speaking to a child.

Bifur looked at him startled as he repeated his words, seeming to believe the doctor's little lie. Bombur sighed with relief and thanked the old dwarf, then gave a small piece of wood to his cousin who immediately began to carve him, concentrating completely on his work.

As calm returned to the group of dwarves, Bombur joined his brother. Initially, he sat down next to him without speaking, trying to understand what words to start with, observing his brother out of the corner of his eye. Finally, he chose a topic that might have aroused his interest.

“You know, Bifur told me that he discovered something interesting about, well, who do you know. But then he started going crazy and he didn't say much to me"

But Bofur did not react as he expected, instead his smile became wider and uncertain as he carefully avoided looking him in the face. 

"I don't think it's necessary anymore, I don't think it was him"

"Why are you suddenly so sure of this?"

Bofur did not reply, instead he looked at his shaking hands.

“Bofur, your hands are full of splinters! You should get checked by Oin and ... but why are you crying?"

Bombur stirred when he noticed the warm tears falling from his brother's cheeks as he closed his eyes and bowed his head. Immediately, he stood up and dragged the dwarf with him as the company looked at them in confusion.

“Bofur is not feeling well, I take him to bed. Oin could you please check my brother's hands? They are full of wood chips"

Oin immediately stood up, happy to be useful to the company, and followed the two brothers to the barn where they slept.  
Nori followed the scene with his eyes, the apprehension that made its way into his chest and squeezed his stomach.  
Was Bofur bad?  
Had something happened while he was not present?  
Nori started asking questions about questions, then he saw Bilbo jump up.

"I'm going to see how Bofur feels!" He said to Thorin, but loud enough to be heard by the rest of the company.

Nori felt a surge of jealousy burn his body and he jumped up too.

"No!" He screamed at Bilbo, and when he realized that both the hobbit and the whole company were looking at him in confusion he tried to recover "That is, I thought it was time to teach you some thief tricks, you know in view of your mission in the mountains. Let Bofur rest”

He showed off the best of his charming smiles, the one he used to defraud people. Bilbo nodded thoughtfully but joined him as Dwalin shook his head in disapproval. The rest of the company returned to chat though disturbed by the fast series of strange events that evening.  
Nori sat satisfied while introducing the art of subterfuge to the hobbit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I struggled a lot to write this chapter, because I rarely write a little erotic things. But I find this chapter beautiful and important for two reasons:  
> 1- Finally we focus on couples, especially on Balin/Dori. I loved writing the part about this couple, because I find it extremely sweet and romantic, a love that goes beyond physicality. As soon as I decided to include this couple in history, I immediately thought of this part!!  
> 2- Details about the Ur family, Especially the relationship between Bifur and Bofur, and how Bombur manages everything. I won't give any more details on this point because I plan to write a little story of how Bifur got to know and raise his two little cousins. This is let's say a premise and link to the small spin off that I will write.
> 
> I apologize for not writing any description of the characters on Tumblr yet but I had a terrible week, I will try to catch up soon!


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nori finally acts against Bofur, but the journey through Mirkwood proves to be more difficult than expected

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for being late, I had a busy weekend!  
> I didn't know whether to follow the story of the book or the film, because I like both of them, so I tried to mix them to create a single plot. I hope I haven't made a mess ^^'

The following morning the company arranged their departure for Mirkwood. Beorn lived up to his promises and helped the dwarves by providing them with everything they needed to tackle the long journey, including plenty of food and ponies to release as soon as the forest started.  
He was very clear about having to let the ponies come back, and by the threatening tone in which he said it the dwarves understood that he would not accept any refusal.

Bombur and Bilbo took care of dividing the food in the various company backpacks while Nori and Dori in the saddling of the horses. Gandalf chatted amiably with their host while the dwarves worked to recover all their belongings and load them on the animals, swarming in the house and in the garden like small worker ants.

Bofur was helping Gloin fill water bottles from the property's well, even though it was actually of very little use. Still distraught from the day before, the miner had a sad and lost gaze and his movements were slow and sloppy. More than once he had dropped the skin that Gloin passed to him, ending up angering the ginger warrior. Fortunately, Balin intervened and with a gentle smile replaced Bofur and calmed Gloin.

Without anything else to do, the brown dwarf tried to make himself useful to his brother and halfing by passing the food that should have ended up in the backpacks.

“How… how are you feeling today, Bofur?” Bilbo asked shyly as he stuffed turnips into Dwalin's backpack, but from the blank stare he received in response he realized that it had not been a good idea to ask.

Bofur made an effort to smile at his little friend, but the smile came out more like a hideous grimace as he nodded unconvinced. Bombur looked at him but said nothing as he filled a basket of carrots. He had spent all night alongside his brother to try to console him, while he listened to the reasons for that emotional collapse between the various sobs. Luckily, Oin had been quick to remove all the splinters from his brother's hands, so he hadn't witnessed his outburst.

As they finished dividing the supplies, Dwalin approached them and without saying a word he began to empty Ori's backpack of all the food to put it in his. At Bombur's protests, he replied with a grunt to do his own business and showed no sign of stopping until the scribe's backpack was completely without food. His instead was full to the brim, but the warrior did not care as he took it and put it on his shoulders to try the weight and balance of the content.

Bilbo smiled at Dwalin's concern for the little scribe. Ori was really right, there was a gentle soul under the hard skin of the warrior. Dwalin put down his backpack with a grunt of approval as he looked further on Ori as he approached Nori, still busy saddling the horses.

“Don't tell Ori. Make up an excuse, do what you want, but don't tell him” He intimated Bilbo and Bombur, completely ignoring Bofur, who in turn was busy looking at the Ri brothers with a lucid look.

Bilbo's smile widened and he nodded vigorously as Bombur looked away from that of the warrior and nodded slightly.

“Good! And you, how long would you like to stay there staring at nothing? Found to do, we must hurry to leave!”

“But Dwalin, Bofur‘s hands still hurt because of the splinters!” Bilbo intervened trying to defend his friend, well aware however that his catatonic state was not due to hand injuries.

“For Mahal's beard, it was only two splinters! Are you by any chance a woman who broke her nail? Even that rogue of a thief does his duty despite his injured hand!”

At those words, Bofur brought his attention completely to the warrior with a confused look.

“Injured hand?”

“Did not you know? Yesterday while swimming in the river, Fili accidentally slipped on Nori and the latter fell on stones injuring his hand” Bombur replied, while Dwalin shook his head and walked away irritated.

Bofur looked at Bilbo frowning but the hobbit shrugged as confused as he, after all they had taken a bath together so he had seen the same things as Bofur.  
But it was Nori himself who resolved their confusion.  
While he was finishing saddling the penultimate pony, Dori called him and threw him the last remaining saddle by surprise. Nori, taken aback, took the saddle using more his injured hand, which in contact with the hard leather of the object caused the thief a sharp stab of pain. Nori dropped the saddle as he waved his hand and turned on himself in pain.

“Fuck Mahal, Dori !!! And cursed also Fili!” He screamed out loud.

“Nori moderates the language! Stop swearing!” Dori retorted him as he picked up the saddle and faced his brother who approached him threateningly.

Ori managed to stand between them, scolding them both as Fili approached worriedly.

“Did you call me, Nori?”

“No, I was just cursing you because my hand hurts because of you!” He spat acid, but seeing the guilt on the boy's face he tried to soften his tones despite the burning in the hand “Nothing personal, it's a habit I took on the streets of Belegost. Easy, I'm not mad at you”

Fili visibly relaxed his shoulders and smiled, then returned to a confused Kili to help him finish tying the backpacks on the saddled ponies.  
Bilbo and the two Ur brothers remained silent after that scene, one more upset than the other.

“Is it ... a common thing among dwarves? That is, curse the names of others?” Bilbo finally asked.

“Not really, no” Bombur replied as he took a carrot and started munching it.

Bofur had been speechless all the time. His eyes followed the thief's movements around the last pony while a sort of revelation made its way into his mind.

"It was a curse" He finally whispered without referring to anyone in particular.

He smiled, then started laughing more and more loudly until he lay down on his back shocked by laughter and tears in his eyes. Bombur and Bilbo looked at him in alarm as the other dwarves turned to look confused.  
Finally, Bilbo jumped up and started running towards the door of the house.

“I- I'm going to call Oin, I think Bofur is still sick!"

*

"Hold on tight, Bofur"

Nori looked away and pushed her heels into the pony's hips to push him forward when he saw Bofur's arms tighten around Gloin's waist. It had been a bad idea to use ponies, although in reality they would have been faster and they would not have suffered the weight of the backpacks. But Nori would have preferred to go all those miles on foot with a backpack on his shoulders rather than seeing Bofur sitting behind someone else as they rode towards Mirkwood.

Beorn had been kind enough to lend him all his horses, but there were only thirteen ponies and a filly so someone would have to ride in two. Beorn had been kind enough to lend him all his horses, but there were only thirteen ponies and a filly so someone would have to ride in two. The obvious choice would have been to have Bilbo ride in turn with everyone else, because he was the smallest and lightest member of the company and could easily disassemble and reassemble on the ponies without making them too heavy. But when the idea had been put forward by Balin, that kind soul of Bofur came forward and offered himself in place of the hobbit.

So now, it was Bofur who every three hours was forced to climb to a different place in order not to make the animals already overwhelmed by weight too much fatigue, to Nori's anger. He could not stand the idea that Bofur, his Bofur, clutched his arms and was in contact with the backs of other dwarves, even though he had no right to think so because he had no binding connection with the miner.

His jealousy increased dramatically when he found himself hours later staring at the miner who laughed and joked with Bilbo as he hugged him so as not to fall. The hobbit was so low seated that Bofur could rest his chin on his head, and Nori was sure he had seen it done sometimes. Unfortunately, they were walking on a very narrow forest path and did not have the opportunity to push the horse further to avoid staring at that pathetic scene, so he had to watch and hear them all the time.

The two friends were amiably chatting about various things, going from the hobbit kitchen to the animals spotted during the trip, ending up talking about flowers and minerals. At a particular question from Bilbo, the brown dwarf started talking about the mine he worked in and all the minerals he had mined, then the conversation shifted to the pickaxe he carried on his shoulder. 

Nori heard the miner tell the story of the pickaxe to Bilbo, carefully avoiding mentioning the presence of the thief, and this squeezed his heart with a small pang of sadness. Bofur then went on to talk about the writing on the handle of the pickaxe, the one that Nori had engraved in secret when he had the object forged, telling how Balin had translated it to him also mentioning a particular writing feature that he did not understand well. 

Nori snorted as he wandered over the sparse undergrowth. His writing was very elegant and refined by dwarven standards, he had spent many hours training when he asked Ori to teach him to read and write, because an illiterate thief was a thief who could easily be cheated or manipulated by competitors. He had made his writing style unique so that people could understand who they were dealing with even without signing up. It was very convenient when he had to leave intimidating messages.

When they finally found a small clearing to stop for a few minutes, Bofur dismounted from Bilbo's horse to look for another passage.

"So who's the next knight?" He asked gesturing funny and making others laugh.

Nori saw an opportunity to get out of that ugly stall forward his eyes. He hurried to join him before anyone else, not wanting to waste and regret it for the rest of the trip. He was tired of watching the miner get closer and closer to Bilbo or the others as he walked away from him, and he was tired of doing nothing to avoid it. He wanted to act and find a way to get closer to him and never let him go, he wanted to make him his once and for all.

"Me" he said as he stood beside the brown dwarf with a determined and serious look, one of those who made it clear that he would not accept a no as an answer.

Initially, Bofur looked at him in amazement and then looked around in obvious discomfort, perhaps in the hope of finding someone else willing to carry him. Nobody, however, seemed interested in the scene, indeed his family members seemed very busy staring at the trees on the other side, while Nori's brothers chatted amiably with Gandalf. Only Thorin watched the scene impatiently, and he certainly had no intention of loading the miner on his pony.

Eventually, Bofur looked back at Nori and nodded as he smiled shyly, the redness spreading across his face. Nori's heart began to beat fast at that sight, and a small ingenious idea whipped into his head instantly.  
While Bofur was putting his hands on the horse to help himself mount, Nori moved to the bottom of the saddle leaving the space in front of him.

“No, you take the reins. I am quite tired of driving, I would like to rest a little. You don't mind, do you?"

He showed off his best smile, the one he used to deceive the poor victims before robbing them, and seemed to have an effect. Bofur stopped for a few moments, swallowing hard and stubbornly staring at the horse's saddle, then nodded and stood up in front of the thief and taking the reins. 

"Are you comfortable?" Nori brazenly asked as he approached Bofur's right ear with his lips.

"Y-yes!" The brown dwarf squeaked, snapping the reins with force.

Bofur was stretched like a violin string. Nori felt all his bravado and conviction die quickly and give way to anguish. Maybe it hadn't been a good idea, maybe Bofur really didn't want to be in his company, maybe he even hated him.  
And how can he blame him? He had repeatedly robbed him in Belegost taking advantage of his state of weakness.

As Thorin called them back to order to leave, Bofur began to fidget on the saddle as if he were looking for a good way to sit comfortably. After a few unsuccessful attempts, the miner pulled off the pickaxe he had stuck in the tunic belt behind his back and passed it on to his traveling companion.

"Tie it to the horse, it's uncomfortable to hold on his shoulder in this position" 

Nori thanked Mahal three times.  
That damned pickaxe wouldn't allow him to hug Bofur in his waist as he would have liked to do so much, nor to rest his chest against his back. He hadn't had the courage to ask him to take it off so as not to feel a refusal, but now he felt his safety return in waves. 

He quickly tied the pickaxe to the rest of the luggage, then faced Bofur's back. He slowly approached the dwarf not to look like a ravenous animal and with trembling hands he surrounded the miner's waist with his arms. He felt Bofur hold his breath as he did so, the tips of his ears turning red with embarrassment.  
He could not say if that was a positive or negative reaction, but by now he had dared and had to play all his cards to try to win.

"You never know, I would not want to find myself with a broken neck to have fallen from a horse" He always whispered in the other dwarf's ear, laughing a little at his banal excuse.

Bofur nodded without saying a word or moving a muscle, but at least he started breathing again. Nori shamelessly leaned against him as they resumed their journey at a faster pace because the path allowed it.

The wings of Bofur's hat waved with each step of the horse and Nori would have liked to take them and play with them a little. Actually, he wanted to take off his hat directly and sink his face into the silky hair of the brown dwarf, breathing in his perfume as he held it even closer to himself, but it was a wish that was impossible to say the least, so he immediately removed it from his mind.  
Despite this, he allowed himself to breathe the perfume of Bofur a little, which thanks to the bath they had taken the day before was not covered by unpleasant smells of goblins and the like. It was delicious and Nori hoped to be able to hear it every day of his remaining life.

They spent most of the three hours in silence as they left the woods to walk up rocky hills. Bofur sat upright rigidly, his whole person screaming pure discomfort, while Nori clung to him desperate for the embarrassing situation to say the least.  
It was a disaster and he would have liked to cry like a baby.  
He could not understand why with the other Bofur behaved in such a spontaneous and sunny way, especially with Bilbo, while with him he remained closed in an unnatural silence. He hadn't said a single word, barely Nori could say he was breathing.

For his part, even Nori had not had the courage to start some discussion, any idea that occurred to him was silly or uninteresting, and he ended up silent. Not that it was strange, he was usually a rather silent type who liked to observe others with detachment, but time was passing and he was wasting a good opportunity to try to get closer to the much desired dwarf.  
Also, the pony was starting to snort and that meant that soon Bofur would be forced to disassemble and find another passage, therefore he had to find the courage to act and quickly too.

"I think it will be raining soon" he said looking at the sky, in the hope that Bofur would take the cue to start a discussion.

"Yes, it is possible" replied the brown dwarf, then silence fell again.

Nori lowered his head closing his defeated eyes. He no longer knew what to do and at that moment he could not ask his brothers for advice. He mentally cursed himself for being totally incapable of these things and because of his behavior he was losing the only dwarf he had ever loved in his life.  
But Bofur's sudden voice made him jerk his head up in amazement.

“Nori, I wanted to know about your hand. Yesterday I was swimming when it happened and I didn't know until this morning"

Was that an apologetic tone?  
Nori would have loved to kiss him there at the moment, but he just tightened his arms slightly around the other dwarf and leaned a little more on his back.

“Nothing that can't heal quickly. Oin did an excellent job, you will probably only see a thin scar. They were really sharp stones" He was silent for a few moments, then took the opportunity to ask something that intrigued him from the moment he saw the miner in the river “Can I ask you where you learned to swim? Few dwarves know how to do it, and even fewer those who live in Belegost. Why did you learn?"

It was a somewhat personal question, especially since they had never talked about such personal things before (excluding Bofur's endless drunken chatter), so Nori didn't really expect an answer, but Bofur was kind enough not to leave him without.

“I learned in the mines. Yes I know, it seems absurd, but it is so. When the aquifers open and the tunnels flood, you end up learning to swim if you want to get out alive"

"So all miners can swim?"

"No, only those too slow to escape"

Bofur laughed heartily even though Nori didn't find the reason, indeed he thought it was something terrible, but hearing the dwarf finally melt made him smile.  
From that moment until Thorin decided to stop and camp for the night, Nori and Bofur conversed on light topics.  
Nori felt himself explode with happiness as he answered and asked the brown dwarf. It reminded him a lot of the chatter they had when Bofur was too drunk to understand that Nori was robbing him and he was starting to talk in vain about anything that came to mind.  
Nori had loved those moments, as he finally realized when he began to see that he couldn't get as close to Bofur as he would have liked, and he loved that same moment on the pony.

When they finally dismounted, Bofur smiled at Nori but immediately reached his relatives without giving the dwarf ginger time to say anything. This displeased the thief very much, but he couldn't have been really sad when he had perhaps the best three hours of his life.  
He saw his brothers wink in his direction and joined them with a sly smile on his face.

Across the field, a very excited Bofur sat down next to Bifur while Bombur began arranging the various pots to cook dinner.

"Here's our Bofur, so how did it go?" Bifur signed while smiling mischievously.

“Oh Mahal Bifur, I have never been so embarrassed in my life. I didn't know what to do, I couldn't relax or think right!"

"In fact, you looked panicked," Bombur commented as he took some potatoes from Ori's backpack (how come they came back in that backpack?) and started peeling them.

"I would like to see! It was glued to me all the time, I was even afraid to breathe! I hope he didn't notice anything, I couldn't bear the shame of being laughed at by him for my feelings"

Bofur rubbed his hands over his face in embarrassment, but the dazed smile and the blush showed no sign of leaving.

"But you don't seem to mind." Bifur continued as he took a potato peel and stuffed it in his mouth.

“No Mahal, of course not. I will feel the touch of his arms on me for days, I'm sure. For my beard, it's so bad to be in love!"

They were silent for a long time while Bombur mixed the ingredients of a meatless soup. Bofur made circles in the ground with a finger while Bifur finished eating the skins discarded by Bombur with the evident disapproval of the latter.  
When the last peel disappeared, Bifur exclaimed by surprise as if he had suddenly remembered something important.

"Bofur I have to tell you something important" He urgently signed "I talked to Balin about the thief, I knew something very interesting"

Bofur immediately stopped playing with the land and looked anxiously at his cousin.

"What? What did you find out?"

"Before joining this quest, Nori was in prison"

Bofur's expression changed from curious to desperate in a split second. His eyes grew larger and wet as his smile faded under his mustache, replaced by a grimace of pain.

"So you're telling me that he didn't give me those gifts because he was in prison?"

"No, damn it, don't jump to conclusions immediately! I'm telling you he didn't show up because he was arrested. Balin told me that Dwalin himself caught him thanks to a tip!"

"And what does it have to do with us?" The miner asked holding on to the last glimmer of hope.

“It happened the day you went back to work in the mine, that is, the day after you received the pickaxe and the box. Balin remembers him because he transcribed the prison terms, I remember him because I had finished carving a toy bear. I always remember all my toys"

Bofur felt the air fail him.

*

Entering Mirkwood had been their biggest mistake since they left Belegost.  
That cursed place would have been their grave.

Initially, it had been quite easy to extricate in the thick vegetation of the forest thanks to the elven path indicated by Gandalf. But the further they went into the depths of that wood, the more they were swallowed up by its gloomy aura. Soon the whole company began to feel dizzy and faint due to the rarefied air, followed by hallucinations and ravings. The sun could not penetrate the dense foliage of the trees and therefore they were forced to wander perpetually in the penumbra. Soon they began to feel a feeling of oppression that never left them.

Day and night mingled due to the perpetual lack of light and the dwarves began to follow their biological clock, or at least Thorin's. They ate when he decided to do it and they slept when he believed it was time to sleep. Obviously this led to a long series of complaints, especially from Bombur who was perpetually hungry, but Thorin was adamant and silenced them all. He was the leader of the expedition and he was the one making the decisions.

During the night, the company gradually began to get closer and closer to the small fire that they were able to light, massing on each other to give each other courage, warm up and not to stay away from the only source of light that penetrated into that disturbing darkness .  
Initially they regrouped as happened, then they began to divide by families. Ori always tried to nestle near Dori, who invariably pulled Nori close to him. Bifur hugged his two cousins very protective, while Balin was content to fall asleep near his brother, even if in the morning he always woke up surrounded by his arm with a protective face. Gloin and Oin always slept back to back, while Kili and Fili crouched at Thorin's hips, who even though he had initially tried to drive them out of pride, now he was almost looking for them himself. Bilbo was hosted by both the Durins and the Ur brothers.

Then something changed.  
The increasingly scarce food, the total absence of natural sounds or noises typical of the woods and the nightmares that slowly began to afflict the whole company, no one excluded, were complicit.  
The older ones started first because they had many, too many unpleasant moments to remember and dream about. Oin and Balin began an increasingly frequent series of agitated and sleepless nights. Quickly, they were followed by the rest of the dwarves and finally Bilbo, who had almost no unpleasant memories in his life.

And before they realized it, many dwarves began unconsciously seeking the comfort of others, dissolving family groupings in favor of sentimental ones. So Fili and Kili ended up sleeping together alone while Thorin pulled Bilbo towards him and wrapped him up as if he wanted to protect him from all harm. Balin left Dwalin in Dori's favor, while the warrior moved near Ori to wrap him in his strong arms. Nori, on the other hand, was sought by Bofur who began to settle next to him, even though they actually slept back to back.

Then they found the damned river and everything started to degenerate quickly. The bridge had collapsed, the boat to tow the other side was gone and all of them had to rely on the creepers. Unfortunately Bombur ended up in the water and remained asleep for a long time, forcing the other dwarves to carry him on a makeshift stretcher. As if that weren't enough, they tried to kill a strange deer unsuccessfully and they were drawn to elven songs and dancing lights off the path. Driven by hunger, they tried to follow the light and the voices until they got lost. They began to wander without knowing where they were going as hallucinations and nightmares worsened.

To make matters worse, Bifur and his madness thought about it. By the time he was exhausted, the company seriously began to think that they would never get out of there and that he did not have much more to live. Bifur began to give way to his spurts of madness more and more often, ending up staying in a wild state most of the time. He screamed, ran, climbed everywhere, put whatever he found on the ground in his mouth, all with his boar spear always in his hand and ready to be used.  
If initially the other dwarves had tried to calm him down or at least control him, by now they were so exhausted that they let him do it while they tried to look after themselves.

That evening, perhaps the tenth since they entered that hell, or perhaps the fortieth, Bofur felt his body heavy and devoid of all strength. The company had literally collapsed in a small grassy area among the trees, one on top of the other, and had not even had the strength to light the fire. Many of them simply lay down and started rambling or sleeping, but they were restless and restless sleep.  
Guard shifts were not organized either because nobody was able to do it, but mainly because nobody thought about it. By now they were so exhausted and consumed by that horrible place that they could not put two thoughts together.  
Thorin above all was exhausted and only stood up thanks to an emaciated Bilbo.  
They were starving, but if it hadn't been for that, the forest would have thought of making them die of madness.

Bofur watched all the company from his niche under a tree where he had collapsed. Everyone was in extreme pain and many of them were or had cried. Ori was crying on Dwalin's shoulder while the latter stroked his back, the same thing Kili did but in the arms of his brother, who was unable to hide the tears himself. Dori had leaned his head on the shoulder of a red and puffy-eyed Balin, his gaze fixed on the void as he wept in silence listening to the suffering of his younger brother without being able to do anything. Oin and Gloin lay asleep neighbors, but instead of standing back to back they hugged each other tightly as if their lives depended on it. Bombur still lay unconscious on his stretcher and Bifur caressed his head with concern, his eyes still bloodshot. Bilbo had lay down beside Thorin and rested his head on his chest with his eyes closed. He murmured something incomprehensible but he was probably talking about his home and how much he regretted having left it.

Nori lay on her side at Dori's feet and tried to keep her eyes open even if they closed with exhaustion. He was in a bad state just like the others, pale as a sheet and with deep dark circles under his eyes. It hurt the eyes of Bofur to see him in that state, with all his hair unraveled and the braids of his beard ruined. 

Without even realizing it, he had approached and lay down in front of the thief. Nori's eyes slowly moved over him, recognizing him despite being tarnished by fatigue.

"Nori ..." Bofur whispered in a low voice as he reached for the thief's hand "Nori, are we dying?"

"I think so ..." He managed to say, but the words came out very mixed while he struggled to stay awake.

"No ... I don't want to die ... I'm afraid, Nori, I'm so afraid" the miner cried, his eyes swollen with unshed tears.

Nori squeezes the brown dwarf's hand lightly, all the strength he had left, while his eyes also moistened. He closed them slowly and began to relax, falling victim to sleep, but he was fished out by Bofur who shook him slightly.

“No Nori, don't leave me alone, please Nori, at least you. I've already lost my family!"

"Bofur ... I don't want to ... leave you ..."

"Wait Nori, I have to tell you something ... I have to do it at least once before I die ... I love you Nori ... Nori?"

But Nori had already collapsed into a deep sleep when Bofur said those words. The miner watched the ginger dwarf as his features softened and his breathing became regular and very deep. He could no longer hold back his tears and he too fell into a restless sleep.

The last thing he heard was the little hobbit who stood up and screamed that he needed air, then the rustling and the sound of broken branches, as if someone was climbing a tree, and finally a painful sting from sting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, if there are errors you can warn me, I will correct them.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Captivity in Mirkwood is not as bad as it seems!

Nori pounced on food as soon as the elf slipped the bowl between the prison bars, not even thinking about checking what was inside. He simply tore the bowl from the elf's hand and stuffed everything he could take with his hands into his mouth. It wasn't much food and it was also of poor quality, mostly almost rotten vegetables and very stale bread, but the thief wouldn't have been picky when he was starving.  
Perhaps it had been fortunate, after all, to have been captured by the elves of the Mirkwood woods.

Still numb from the venom of the spiders that had captured them before the elves, Nori gorged himself until he cleaned the bowl, eating even the smallest crumbs. The elf laughed with contempt at seeing him, mocked him while enjoying that desperate scene.  
In other circumstances Nori would have been ashamed of having behaved in such a miserable way, but he did not remember the last time he ate, also there was not much to safeguard in their situation; they were hungry, dirty, covered in rags, disarmed by their jailers and forced into cold, narrow cells far from each other.

Nori was used to life in the cell, he had been jailed many times during his brilliant career as a thief, but nevertheless he never liked it. He hated having to be forced to spend his days locked in a tight space, having to do his needs in a bucket and being constantly fixed by the guards.   
He could not imagine other less accustomed dwarves like Dwalin or Dori at the time. They were probably freaking out, or huddled in a corner praying to Mahal to be freed.

Once the meal was over, he put down the empty bowl and concentrated on the carafe of water, which fortunately was not as unhealthy as the food. He sipped the water, finally refreshing his throat while carefully observing the cell where he had been pushed not long before. It was not too small and there was a bed and a bucket that were not very worn. The straw on the ground was clean, and this was already a great relief for the thief. They didn't seem like prisons used often, not like those in Belegost which were always very crowded, but on the other hand, who would have ventured into Mirkwood so deeply as to be captured by the elves?

He climbed onto the bed too high for a simple dwarf and lay down enjoying a little rest at last. In fact, he was taking advantage of that situation to rest and recover his energy, as if instead of being locked in a cell in the depths of an enemy kingdom he was spending his time on vacation.  
In reality there was not much he could do except wonder how the others were doing, memorize the shifts of their jailers and try to converse with them to get even the most minimal information.  
He had already checked the cell lock and as he had imagined it had been enchanted by the magic of the elves, so any of his burglary tricks were completely useless. It would only open with its special key, which is also certainly enchanted, and nothing else.

As he stretched, the thief wandered his mind over the rest of the company. Since they had been captured, he had never seen Bilbo again. He hoped he had at least rescued him so that he could somehow help them escape, even if he doubted it. He was a person with great intelligence and the perennial jealousy that the thief felt towards him had not altered the esteem he had for him, but was he equally capable as a burglar? This time they were not fighting against stupid monsters but against the elves, an arrogant and malevolent race, and unfortunately also well organized.

Since their capture he had never seen even Thorin, escorted aside by King Thranduil while they were being pushed into the dungeons. Nori had fought to try to stay as close as possible to his brothers and Bofur, but in a short time they were divided and he never saw anyone again. From the corridors, however, he could occasionally hear some scream or moan, so they were not too far away.

He would have liked to be close to Bofur at that moment, to feel his lack of optimism to instill courage and see him smile. The only regret he had about wandering around Mirkwood again was being able to sleep next night in Bofur. Sure, they were dying and he remembered almost nothing of everything they had done after losing the path, but he had a vague memory of Bofur's face sleeping near his, and Nori clung to it with all his might trying to remember more.

Slowly, he closed his eyes and drifted away.  
He was awakened long after by the sound of a voice calling his name. He slowly blinked still heavy as he sat up and looked around, initially not understanding where he was. When he focused his sight and his mind cleared he remembered everything and moaned.  
The voice kept calling him and it came from outside the bars, and when Nori finally looked in that direction he saw a Bilbo crouched and clearly agitated.

"Bilbo?" He asked incredulously "How the hell did you get here without being seen?"

“I have my methods, I'm still a burglar, aren't I? Listen to me Nori, I don't have much time and I don't want to be found out. I found everyone else and Thorin too, they locked him in a cell even deeper than yours, and I'm looking for a way to get you out of here, but it's not easy!"

Nori went to the cell bars and knelt in front of the hobbit.

"I need your help. You're a thief, aren't you? You will be able to organize an escape, even if mass! I can help you by carrying messages for the rest of the company and I can collect information, but I can't do it alone"

“What do you think I can do closed in a cell in a completely unknown place? I can't even force the lock, it's magical!"

“I'm not asking you only me. Thorin asked me to organize the escape and Dwalin advised me to ask you for help. He says you are very good at these things, so please help me!"

Nori gaped at those words. Was Dwalin, the chief of the city guard, his arch enemy for decades putting a good word for him?  
_Foolish, he's only doing it to impress your brother!_ A small voice whispered in his head, but nonetheless Nori was pleasantly impressed.

"Okay, but you will have to do everything I tell you and exactly as I tell you, understand?"

"Yes, yes sure!"

“First get me some paper and charcoal. Then I would like to know what happened to my brothers and how they are doing, and also the rest of the company of course"

*

"Please give me back the box, at least that, even empty! It is important to me, it is not precious but it is very important. Have mercy for once!"

Bofur squeezed the bars of the cell trying to attract the attention of the guards on duty screaming and making noise, but in vain. Those beings were so cold and ruthless that they were not pitied by his requests and his complaints.  
He wanted to get back at least the box, at least that, as a souvenir of that gift from a long time ago, but it seemed impossible. By now he had lost it together with the thread, the note and the pickaxe and this made him despair.

After the umpteenth prayer, he finally got tired of screaming and sat on the straw with his shoulders against the wall. Their situation had improved slightly since they wandered in Mirkwood (at least now gold had something to eat!), But one could not define a good situation anyway. Everything had gone wrong since the wizard had left them and they had set foot in that cursed forest, and now Bofur could not see how they would be saved.

He sighed as he picked up a straw and started playing with it. He missed his family and Nori, and Bilbo and the rest of the company. He didn't know exactly how long they had been down there but he had already fallen asleep from exhaustion three times.

"Oh Mahal help us" He whispered as he threw the straw stalk away.

“Bofur” 

The brown dwarf was frightened to hear his name whispering from nowhere so close, and when he saw Bilbo near the bars of his cell, the happiness he felt almost threatened to explode his chest.

"Bilbo! O Mahal, it's so nice to see you! How did you not get caught?"

"Shhh, softly or they'll hear us. I am a good burglar, you should know it"

"Yes, of course you are!" Bofur agreed as he approached the bars excitedly.

"Well, but now we go to the point, I have little time available. I found the rest of the company scattered in the dungeon cells, Nori and Thorin are helping me to devise an escape plan"

"Nori! He's fine, right?" Bofur exclaimed, but immediately fell silent when he saw the exasperated look that Bilbo gave him.

"Yes, very well, now shut up and listen. We managed to draw the approximate map of the palace of Thranduil on this piece of paper, all the cells are marked here and where you are"

"But it's written with dwarven runes, how do you read them?" The miner sincerely asked when the halfling opened a scribbled sheet of paper.

"I have memorized the meanings, the elves are not able to read Khuzdul exactly like me and this makes it perfect for this kind of thing. Then Thorin is here. "He indicated with his little finger an inscription of a few runes" While Balin is here. Near him are Gloin, Kili, then Oin, this is Dwalin, Dori and Fili, Ori is here, Nori is here and not far away is Bombur. Here Bifur and here you are"

He pointed to another name written with a few runes. Bofur watched him curiously as he discovered that his cell was near that of his cousin and Dori. The runes seemed immediately familiar to him, in fact they were the same ones he had seen countless times on his pickaxe. The name hadn't changed and so did the runes, of course.

While Bilbo explained to him how the other rooms were structured, so in the event of an escape at least they had a vague idea of where they were, Bofur still remained focused on the runes of his name. There was something that went beyond simple familiarity, it almost seemed that those writings were trying to tell him something.

Then he widened his eyes as the realization struck him, Bilbo still intent on explaining to him how from the kitchens you could reach the cellars full of wine barrels. He opened his mouth in disbelief as he lost his breath and his heart began to beat furiously.  
Those runes were not familiar to him because they were the runes of his name.  
Those runes were familiar to him because they were the same as those engraved on his pickaxe!

Every single curve, every corner, every graphic detail, everything was perfectly the same. The incision on the pickaxe and the scribble on the sheet had been done by the same hand. He started to sweat cold while he stammered something incomprehensible, and finally Bilbo stopped his monologue realizing that something was wrong.

"Bofur, is something wrong?"

"Who ... ah ... Almighty Mahal, who drew this map? Who wrote those runes?"

"Certainly not me, you dwarves are so jealous with your secret language, I don't even know the alphabet. It was Nori, it's amazing how quickly he can draw the map of a place just by listening to the descriptions of someone who ..."

Bilbo kept talking in vain as Bofur whitened like a sheet and began to hyperventilate.

"O Yavanna, Bofur are you okay?"

"Yes ... yes, I just need a moment ... I just ... oh Mahal bless me, it was him!"

*

Thorin's cell was quite dark and humid, located in the depths of the dungeons of the elven kingdom, away from everything and everyone. Thorin sat in a peeling and thatched corner away from the bars. Those bastards of the elves had not even given him a bed to sleep in, there were only straw, walls and bars. From time to time they needed a bowl of some strange green food and a jug of water, but otherwise he was completely alone in the perennial twilight.

Initially, he thought he was going crazy. Thranduil had laughed heartily while informing him of his imminent accommodation, hoping that sooner or later he would break enough to yield to his requests, then he had thrown him down there and forgotten for who knows how long. Thorin hadn't been able to keep track of the days, he hadn't seen the sunlight since they entered that damned forest.

In reality, Thorin was a dwarf, and the dwarves lived at ease in the excavated rock where the sun never came, but they still needed light and space, air and company, especially the company. The cramped cell and absolute silence were driving the dwarf king to madness.  
Maybe Thranduil was right, maybe he would have broken.

But this endless negative spiral was interrupted by the sudden appearance of the hobbit in front of his cell. Thorin had believed that Bilbo had been captured or worse killed in the forest and that he would never see him again, and it was a joy for the eyes and heart to see him standing before him in health and agitated as always.

When he started talking he wounded the ears of the dwarf now accustomed to total silence, but this did not irritate Thorin. His voice sounded like a melody of the most exquisite musical instruments and Thorin could have listened to it for hours on end.

After drawing his attention, Bilbo began to describe the place to him and inform him of the situation of the others. In doing so, Thorin discovered that a few days had passed since their capture, that Dwalin was trying in every way to break down the bars of his cell unsuccessfully, that Balin was trying to bargain with elves who were not very interested in the gold and the promises of the dwarf, that Bombur was fasting.  
Dori spent his time asking every guard who saw if his brothers were fine, Nori unsuccessfully fumbled with the cell lock, Gloin and Oin remained mostly silent waiting, Ori tried to snatch at least one plate from the guards of meat. Bifur ate all the weeds they offered him and Bofur begged the guards to give him back the box. Kili and Fili managed to find material for jokes and jokes even in that context.

Thorin's heart narrowed as he felt the sad situation of his company, of his faithful dwarfs, and begged Bilbo to find a way to free them quickly. The hobbit was surprised by his pleading words, in fact he had always been so proud that he never stooped down to beg someone, but they were in a desperate situation and he had no other choice.  
He was also Bilbo, and with him he inexplicably managed to be himself without feeling any sense of vulnerability.

Bilbo trotted back and forth between the company and his cell every day, even several times a day. Thorin had wondered several times how he managed to escape the tight controls of the elven guards, and when he asked the half man, the latter always answered elusively.

With that constant oral correspondence, Thorin finally managed to keep in touch with the rest of the company, to encourage them and stay informed of all their health. In addition, Bilbo's company was visibly improving his mood.  
He began to wait anxiously for his arrival and he always tried to prolong as much as possible the moments of exchange of information, which in a short time began to turn into long chats on various topics. Bilbo seemed happy to be able to freely talk about various topics with him, and Thorin began to appreciate Bilbo's company more and more.  
It had become something he could no longer do without and Thorin soon managed to give it a precise name.  
It was love.

It wasn't a feeling born in the depths of that kingdom due to their desperate situation, it was something he had already noticed during their stay at Beorn's house. Thorin couldn't help looking tenderly at the little hobbit's smiles, wondering how soft those honey-colored curls could be, wanting to caress those rosy cheeks and hold him close. If initially he had tried to avoid similar thoughts even going so far as to despise the soft appearance of the hobbit, now he could no longer help but look at him and desire him.

Then one day something unexpected happened.  
As usual, Bilbo had appeared out of nowhere by calling him with a low voice while pressing on the prison bars. Thorin, who was napping on his pile of straw, woke up with a startled alert, but immediately he relaxed when he saw the little hobbit. He too approached the bars and greeted him with a smile.

"Maybe I found a way to get you out of here without getting caught, but to do it we will have to wait a few more days when I won't be able to visit you"

"Really? What's it about?"

“Before long the whole kingdom will be busy celebrating a certain party, now I don't remember the name, which will also be attended by the guards. Surveillance will be minimal and the rooms almost completely empty. I am still not sure about this and I will have to investigate again, but lately the king is very busy in the preparations so it must be a very important celebration!"

"If what you say is true, it will be an unrepeatable opportunity. We absolutely must use it!"

Thorin's eyes burned like two blue embers as he listened to Bilbo's words. Maybe there was a way, maybe they would have managed to escape from that hell, to deceive the elves and finally return to their mission to free Erebor.

He tightened the bars in front of him with such force his excitement was.

“Do everything you can, Bilbo, we must be able to escape before Durin's day! Have you already informed the others?"

“No, still no, I preferred to inform you first. Unfortunately, however, I cannot stay much longer, they are changing the guard and a particularly bad elf will soon arrive. I saw him beat a prisoner because he couldn't keep up with them while they took him to the king!"

"One of us?" Thorin snapped, the anger already boiling in his veins.

“No, no, I think he was an elf but I'm not sure, it was quite dark. I dare not imagine what they could do if they found me out!"

Thorin felt a cold shiver run down his spine when he saw the fearful expression of the hobbit in the shadows. Yes, if they found out they would surely torture him to get all the information he could, then throw him in his cell or worse kill him. No race took pity on spies, not even noble elves.  
The mere thought of Bilbo in that pitiful state made his anger skyrocketing.

"If they try to lift a single finger on you, I swear to Mahal and Durin that I will have that damned elf king's head on a silver platter while I watch his kingdom and that fucking forest burn!"

Bilbo flinched at those words spoken with so much seriousness and passion, the icy gaze full of hatred and repressed anger that looked him straight in his eyes. Thorin wasn't kidding, he would have really devastated that kingdom and killed all that race if only they had dared to touch Bilbo.

The hobbit opened his mouth slightly as he silently continued to hold Thorin's gaze.  
Then it all happened in a matter of seconds.  
Without breaking eye contact, Bilbo stood on tiptoe, grabbed a confused Thorin by the tunic and put his lips on hers. It was a sweet and chaste kiss, but full of meaning. Bilbo kept his eyes closed while Thorin looked at him in shock.

But the magical moment broke quickly as it began and Bilbo walked away terrified as he stammered incoherent apologies.

"Oh my ... sorry Thorin, I ... oh dear, I-"

But he could not finish the sentence because a big hand pressed on the back of his neck and pushed him again in front against the lips of the dwarf. Fortunately, the bars were wide enough to allow Thorin's hand to pass through, but nevertheless the two found themselves pressing their faces into the cold iron. However, this did not prevent them from deepening the kiss.

Bilbo picked up the dwarf's tunic with his small hands, tilting his head slightly to allow Thorin to kiss him better. The dwarf briefly licked the lips of the hobbit to ask for permission to enter, which was immediately granted. They explored their mouths with tongues, and although both had failed to take care of their hygiene for a long time, nobody seemed to notice.

The sound of footsteps and the shouting of the guards put an end to the passionate kiss between the two. Bilbo quickly walked away from the dwarf, licking his lips as he looked at him with a mischievous look. Thorin observed the redness spread on his face, visible even in the penumbra, and gave him a tender caress on the cheek.

"I-I have to go" Bilbo stammered as he leaned into the warm hand of the dwarf.

"Yeah, just ... be careful Bilbo. And come back to me"

He saw the half-man running in the opposite direction of the noises, giving him one last look before disappearing around a corner. Thorin followed him with his eyes while his mind was in total confusion.  
Bilbo had kissed him and he had returned the kiss with enthusiasm, so Bilbo felt his own feelings.  
Eventually a thought among all managed to make its way between the confusion of thoughts and sensation: when they would get out of there, he would begin the courtship with Bilbo.  
Bilbo had to be his, only and uniquely his.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here's another chapter. Sorry for its brevity but it is only a preparation for the next chapter, which will be very important and very interesting eh eh eh eh... spicy eh eh eh eh!


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time for comparison and clarification (nsfw chapter)

Slowly, the whole company managed to reach the shore by tilting the barrels and helping themselves to paddle. Some of the barrels had embarked water and were almost sinking, like that of Bofur, but in spite of this all the dwarves managed not to drown and drag themselves on the muddy ground, even if many of them discovered that day that they suffered from seasickness.

They were completely soaked with water from head to toe, exhausted and tried by the captivity and enemy attack suffered in their escape, and many of them were literally starving. Dwalin had to help Ori get out of his barrel, the little scribe was so weak that he couldn't even stand up. It was truly a pitiful sight to see him crawl on the mud of the shore and then collapse gasping, grateful to be still alive and on dry land.

But it was Kili who made it worse. Not only was he suffering from hunger and fatigue like everyone else, he had also been injured by an orc arrow and was bleeding profusely from the wound on his leg. His brother Fili tried to support him to make him walk to a dry ground and then medicate him, but time was scarce and they were hunted by both the orcs and the elves, they had to move quickly.

As Oin bent over Kili to take a look at the wound, Nori sat on a boulder and tried to squeeze as much water out of his clothes as possible. His hair and beard were a complete disaster, exactly like those of the rest of the company, and hung weighed down by the water and tangled in big knots that the thief knew would have suffered in dissolving them.

He quickly twisted several edges of the tunic, then he switched to the trousers. It wasn't the first time Nori had to endure wet clothes on, but it was such a pleasant feeling that every time it seemed like it was the first.  
As he tried to squeeze the water out of his poor beard, he saw a shadow stretching behind him. Too tired to shoot as he usually did when someone tried to take him by surprise, he simply turned his head and looked at the silhouette out of the corner of his eye.

"Nori, if you have time I would like to talk to you about something" Bofur looked at him with tired eyes but his repeatedly interlacing his hands betrayed a certain nervousness "Possibly privately" He concluded while looking around briefly.

Nori was breathless and lost a few years of life at the same time.  
He stared at him in that strange and uncomfortable position for a few moments while his mind was submerged by questions, doubts, theories and hasty conclusions, a chaotic mixture that allowed him to do nothing but open his mouth in wonder.

Had he been betrayed by his brothers?

In the end Ori had sold him for some other nonsense about Dwalin?  
Or had Bofur managed to convince Dori in some way?  
To be excluded, his brothers would never have done such a thing!  
Maybe Bofur had heard him while he was in the tool shed?  
No impossible, he had been rather discreet and silent.  
But then, did the miner want to tell him something else? And what?  
Maybe he had noticed his feelings and wanted to clarify that he didn't reciprocate?

The onset of a painful stiff neck allowed him to dismiss most of those thoughts aside and react in an almost natural way.

"Yes, of course, no problem. What is it about?"

"Well, maybe we should talk about it where nobody can hear us, it's quite important"

_ Oh god Mahal forgive me! What the hell is going on? _ The thief thought convulsively, but he managed to show the miner a convinced smile.

"Right, so the time to remove the water from the boots and we can go"

He took off one boot at a time very slowly, more to take time than for the real need to remove the water from his shoes. Bofur stood waiting for him observing every single movement, but with each passing minute he became more and more nervous and agitated.  
When Nori finally put on the second boot, he got up and looked at the other dwarf.

He was about to open his mouth to ask him where to go when a snarl of Dwalin and the unmistakable crash of a bow attracted everyone's attention, throwing the company into total chaos at the sight of an armed human.

*

Dwalin strolled on the bridges and on stilts of Lake Town absorbed in his thoughts, heedless of all the curious and amazed glances he attracted to his passage.  
The citadel on the lake was a perfect example of how poor and disappointing the quality of human construction could be, not to mention its political and economic system. There was poverty everywhere, it was clear that citizens suffered from hunger every day and that the governor squeezed them as much as he could to recover some more gold. It was a depressing place where men instead of living tried to survive.

Dwalin made yet another grimace when he saw a very old human biting a rotten carrot with abandon. He had never been very finicky with food, especially in the period after the dragon's attack on Erebor where they were forced to wander the wilderness and earn a living every day in order not to starve, but there was a limit to all. Never in his life, even in misery on the streets of human cities, had he been forced to eat like that to get by, never!

He turned a corner and he found himself on a bridge connecting two houses. The streets and piers were slimy and worn, worn by the use and the constant lapping of the water. The general smell of the place smelled of rotten fish and sewage, even near the hovels that seemed better than others, perhaps inhabited by some type of nobility.

Dwalin hated that place, had hated it since the first step he had taken on those damned dripping wooden boards. It was a horrible, disgusting, smelly city, full of beggars and above all suspended over the water. No type of stone or rock, earth or cave, only wood and water, sometimes sun and a lot of rain.

Tired of turning aimlessly, he found himself a secluded spot under a balcony of a house and away from the curious eyes of the people, and sat on the edge of the catwalk swinging his legs too short to touch the water.  
He had been walking around the city for almost an hour now, since Thorin had asked him to take a look around to assess the level of danger in the place and if they could trust the governor and his concessions.

Initially, they had not been received in the best way, indeed the citizens and the governor wanted to hunt them as if they were villains (in fact they had tried to steal weapons from the town armory), but subsequently they had been welcomed with all the honors and stay in a shabby house for as long as necessary. None of the company deluded themselves, however, that welcome was not addressed to them but to the treasure that rested in the lonely mountain, which the dwarves would find and with which they would surely repay their allies.

But right away Dwalin understood that no one in that place forgotten by Mahal and all the other deities could pose a threat to them and their mission, so he spent the remaining time to get a general idea of the place and what it was like been built.  
And to clear his mind about a certain scribe.

He leaned back against the wooden wall of the house and relaxed, taking a bundle from his bag. Ori himself had given it to him that morning, when he had gone down to the kitchen of the house to look for something to eat for breakfast before going out. Ori and Bilbo were chatting and laughing together as they busied themselves in front of the oven, and when the scribe saw the warrior he immediately turned red and started to stammer as he hurriedly hid something behind him.

Dwalin was slightly confused but said nothing as he grabbed and started eating fruit, but when he started to leave Bilbo stopped him by shyly touching his arm. With one push, the hobbit urged Ori to deliver something to Dwalin, asking him not to open it until he was on the streets of the city.

This had left the captain of the guards even more confused, but the hopeful look and the blush on Ori's face pushed him to promise.  
And now he had finished his patrol tour and had every right to finally know what an agitated Ori had given him.

He untied the bundle's knot and revealed a stack of small golden biscuits.  
Dwalin gaped as he took one in his hand, turning it over to look at him in amazement. They were small honey-colored biscuits, very similar to the ones he had eaten the first evening in the hobbit house, but they were totally different in shape. Instead of being round, the biscuits were square and had a showy rune on the top made from a thin strip of shortcrust pastry, which indicated the initial of the name Dwalin.  
It was obvious that it was not born of the hands of the hobbit, nor the geometric shape so dear to the dwarven culture, nor the rune in Khuzdul.

Dwalin smiled as he sniffed a biscuit. It had a very good scent, like those of Bag End, but there was something else that added an extra spicy note that was not in Bilbo's: cardamom. That revelation made the giant dwarf's mouth water, who wasted no time putting the whole biscuit into his mouth, savoring and chewing it slowly as he closed his eyes for pleasure.  
He hadn't eaten a cardamom dish since they left Belegost, and the slightly spicy flavor of the spice immediately reminded him of home.  
It was one of the few spices common in Dwarven cooking, which Dwalin appreciated very much.

He swallowed and opened his eyes to look at the remaining biscuits in the bundle.  
Ori had been so considerate as to ask Bilbo for the recipe for those biscuits, to prepare them with his help and to package them exclusively for him. How Ori had discovered that he was fond of that type of cake was a mystery, but Dwalin didn't care, what mattered was the gesture.

Ori, the young scribe that with his shyness but immense stubbornness he had managed to make his way into the warrior's heart, the only one who was able to stand up to him when necessary and make him smile for a single gesture. For Ori he had begun to consider his brother Nori no longer as the rogue thief he was but as a loyal companion to trust, and for him he had risked his life against the human archer named Bard. Thinking back, it had been a very reckless choice to face an archer with only a stick found along the lake shore, but the human one was threatening Ori and Dwalin had moved instinctively.

Biting another biscuit, Dwalin found himself thinking about a hypothetical life together with the scribe. Returning from work and finding him at home intent on his writing homework, receiving a welcome kiss and then being looked after by his concern, eating the dishes cooked by his skilled hands. He imagined himself relaxing in the bathtub while he hears the scribe humming as he finishes his work, then reaches him in bed, wraps him in his embrace and waits for him to fall asleep and then sleep too.

_ Wake up in the morning next to him, breathe the scent and pamper him in my arms _ He thought as he finished the biscuit and stubbornly stared at the greenish water of the lake _Wait for him to wake up and then say good morning with a tender kiss. Every morning, forever. Do I really want such a life?_

He shifted his gaze to the geometrically shaped biscuits, the short pastry that drew the rune on the surface was slightly darker than the rest of the biscuit and the fingerprints of the thin fingers of the dwarf who had kneaded it were visible.

Quickly, Dwalin closed the bundle and put it in his bag, getting up and heading towards their temporary home with a firm step and a serious look.

He knew what he had to do, and would do it that evening.

*

Nori sighed as he sat in an old armchair near an extinguished fireplace. He arched his back and took his head in his hands, resting his elbows on his knees and massaging his forehead.  
It had been a very difficult day and now he was trying to metabolize everything that had happened.

Actually, the morning was rather boring if we excluded the fact that Bofur had tried for the umpteenth time to talk to him in private, but as usual they were interrupted while trying to start the speech. Since they had left Mirkwood prisons, they had not had a single moment to be alone and speak as the miner wanted, even though the miner had tried several times. With each new attempt, Nori could see how the brown dwarf was even more agitated and nervous, until that day he was almost begging him to talk to him. He had noticed that when Bofur approached him suddenly Bombur and Bifur disappeared from circulation, or at least concentrated their attention on something very far from the two.  
Too strange to be just a coincidence.

But the day became quite rough when Dwalin returned from his tour of the city and asked to speak privately with the Ri brothers. Nori remembered how Ori was completely terrified of that request and clung firmly to Dori's arm, the latter who literally had to drag him into the empty room they had decided to use for the discussion. Nori had followed them staring at the giant dwarf all the time, ready to draw a dagger at the first opportunity. The rest of the company just watched them and then forgot about them, though Bilbo worriedly asked what was going on with Thorin while Balin stared at them all the time with a joyful smile.

When they were finally alone in the room, Dwalin settled in front of them and looked at them one by one, pausing for a few moments on Ori, who trembled and tried to hide behind Dori, and then faced them again.

"So what did you want to talk to us about?" Dori had asked diplomatically, but his gaze was very serious and threatened a violent response to any harassing attempt against his brothers.

His reaction and that of his brothers when they saw Dwalin kneel before them and recite the traditional formulas to ask for the premise to the family to court Ori was almost exhilarating if it had not almost made the little scribe pass out and explode Dori like a firework.

Dwalin had remained steadfast and impassive while Dori unraveled a variety of reasons why Ori was not ready for such a thing, and various threats, some quite colorful. Nori didn't think it possible that such vulgar words could come out of his older brother's mouth, but instead it happened and was almost comical.

Then Ori stepped forward boldly and knelt before the warrior accepting his proposal, ignoring Dori's maddening screams and Nori's appalled gaze. A rather heated discussion followed between the brothers while Dwalin remained wisely silent, where Ori faced Dori for the first time with his head held high.

Nori was shocked and confused by the incident. In fact, he should have expected such a thing given the constant flirtations that the two launched on each other, but the impact was still overwhelming. While Ori responded ferociously to his older brother by reiterating his age and his complete ability to be able to choose his life as he sees fit, Nori began to objectively assess the situation.  
Dwalin had been the captain of the Belegost guards, the one who had arrested him countless times, and for whom he did not feel much sympathy. But in that last year spent facing that suicide mission, the energenian had shown himself capable of great value and reliability, he had also proved how important Ori was for him. The ginger dwarf was still impressed with how Dwalin had faced the archer Bard with only one branch in his hand to protect his brother who hadn't noticed the attack.  
Perhaps Dwalin was truly the best choice Ori could make, even counting his noble origins.

In the end it was Nori who put an end to the discussion, quickly approaching the dwarf warrior and placing a blade near him from who knows where to the exposed throat.  
Dwalin did not flinch while the other brothers fell silent in surprise.

"You hurt Ori and I open you in two like an apple, you make him suffer and you will find the intestines in your hands. You just try to touch him the wrong way and your head will roll all over Middle-earth. You make him cry again and I will persecute you to the underworld. Did you understand?"

When he saw the giant nod, Nori sheathed the dagger and walked away.

"Then you have my approval." He merely said, supporting the shocked looks of the other dwarves, even that of Dwalin.

Dori seemed about to explode again, but then he seemed to calm down as he closed his eyes and drew something out of his mind.

“I want to believe you, like I believed your brother when he told me what kind of person you are. But you know that my brother's threats are only the starter of what I will do to you if I see Ori suffer. You have my approval, but he will always remain my little Ori!"

The memory of how Ori hugged them laughing and crying at the same time was so sweet that it almost made Nori cry, but the thought of what those two were probably doing at that moment horrified him beyond imagination.

Nori stopped remembering and rubbing his head when he heard uncertain footsteps going down the corridor, then the miner's beloved figure peeped into the room.

“Nori, I absolutely have to talk to you. I have to do it now, I can't wait anymore"

"Day of revelations, apparently" He exclaimed sitting up straight while taking a long breath from his nose and looking at the other confused dwarf "What do you have to tell me so important, Bofur?"

Bofur looked around to make sure they were finally alone, then he faced the ginger dwarf with renewed courage.

"It was you, I know you did it. It was you who gave me the pickaxe and that casket, along with that sack of coins!"

Nori blanched like a corpse at those words, starting to sweat cold. He had not experienced such terror since the first time he had been captured by the guards and thrown in his cell and threatened with torture, which never occurred. At that time he was only a small teenage dwarf, now he was a rather mature adult.  
He tried to spread a smile on his face but a quivering grimace came out while he pretended a surprised confusion.

“I-I was the one who did what? I do not understand…"

"No, don't lie, I have proof! The day of your incarceration, the note written by Ori who did not want to tell me who had commissioned him, but above all the inscription on the pickaxe!"

"Inscription? How-"

“I saw the map that you drew for Bilbo in Mirkwood prisons, your writing was the same as the one engraved on the handle of my pickaxe. You wrote it, didn't you? Nori, please, I have to know, did you write it? Were they ... were they courtship gifts?"

Despite his serious gaze, Bofur begged the thief with hopeful eyes.  
Nori instead felt with one foot in the pit.  
He tried to keep his breath calm despite his heart beating madly, trembling like a leaf under the inquiring gaze of the other dwarf. He was sweating profusely as his mind ran fast looking for a way to get away with the total confusion of his thoughts this time too.  
He did not notice that he remained silent for a long time staring at the miner in panic.

Bofur seemed to notice his agitated state because he frowned slightly as if trying to understand something, then raised them with wide eyes for some kind of revelation. He instantly lost his confidence, which gave way to fear and shame, and stepped back biting his lip.

"I ... sorry, maybe I was wrong, maybe you don't ... ah ..." He stumbled in his words while he moved his gaze everywhere but not on Nori and continued to slowly back away.

It was the opportunity that the thief was waiting for. Bofur was confused and insecure, he could have leveraged those two factors to lie shamelessly and make him believe he was wrong. He could solve the situation in a few words and return their strange relationship as before, as if nothing had happened.  
But was this really what he wanted?

Nori evaluated all the various situations for a moment, like when he was in the middle of a theft and something went wrong and he had to rearrange everything quickly to try to get away, concluding that no, he didn't want to go back.  
He was tired of that kind of dance that they were both dancing, where one step forward equals two steps backwards, and he was also tired of just watching without doing anything while others were walking around Bofur, or acting but without success. He was tired of not being able to reveal his feelings to another dwarf, and he was tired of thinking, weighing, lying and covering up.  
He wanted to risk it all, and he wanted to do it that evening, at that moment.

But his contemplative silence was misinterpreted by the miner, who rubbed his sweaty cheek with the back of his hand nervously as he backed towards the door, his eyes becoming shiny.

"I-I must have been wrong, evidently it wasn't you. I ... yes, in short, I'm going now ..."

He was about to leave and Nori was about to miss the only possible opportunity to move the situation. He jumped up looking at him almost with desperation, and he closed the distance with him almost flying.  
Bofur didn't have time to react in any way.

Nori pushed him against the free wall behind him and blocked him with his slightly taller body, one hand clutching one shoulder while the other grabbed his hair tied in a braid under his hat. He didn't even stop to look him in the eye, he headed directly to his lips.

He kissed him with passion and abandonment, almost devouring him, all the frustration accumulated in those months that exploded in one shot. Initially, Bofur was petrified by the sudden initiative of the thief, but broke up quickly and grabbed the dwarf as if his life depended on it.  
They were trapped in that kiss for a long time, neither of them who wanted to break away and risk breaking the magic, losing the other one again and starting all over again. But the lack of air made itself felt and finally they parted.

Bofur took a long breath as he bit his shiny lips, Nori looking at him with raw hunger.

"Yes, it was me." Finally he managed to say without mentioning the courtship, then he went back to attacking Bofur's lips.

This time the thief asked permission to explore the other's mouth with his tongue, which was promptly granted to him, while his hands began to slide on the other's body. Soon Nori broke away from the other's lips in favor of his chin and neck, which he began to kiss and bite. Bofur could not suppress a small moan, which prompted the thief to redouble his efforts to hear others.  
His hands, now on Bofur, began to descend dangerously, settling in rather sensitive places. This prompted Bofur to try to drive the thief away, but he didn't want to know.

"Nori -ah- someone c-could see us!" He whispered to the thief.

“You’re right!”

Nori quickly walked away from the miner and took him by the hand, then he started in the corridor towards his room almost running, dragging him behind. In the meantime, they met Oin who was returning from the rooms of Fili and Kili, surely to check the worse and worse condition of poor little Durin's wound. Bofur quickly apologized to him when they collided, Nori too busy getting to the room as soon as possible to stop or even give him a look.

Meanwhile, in the now empty room, an ajar door opened revealing Bombur and Dori, one more upset than the other.

"Mahal!" Bombur cursed.

"He seemed to be devouring him ..." Dori managed to say.

"I think our families will have a lot to say in these days to come"

"No, for my beard, another time no!"

*

Nori woke up slowly and struggling to open his eyes. He felt his head and the rest of his body incredibly heavy, as if made of lead rather than flesh and blood. When he finally managed to open his eyes, he rubbed his face with one hand and he tried to lean on his elbow while focusing in front of him.  
When he finally got a good look, he saw the back of a Bofur lying in front of him.

His first reaction was of total panic. He had a heart beat and he almost jumped up to run out of the room, enter his, find a way to get dressed and go down to the kitchen to have breakfast as if nothing had happened. But then the memory began to return and Nori remembered that he was already in his room, that the night before he had finally managed to let Bofur know about his feelings, and that they had spent a hot night together.

The memory of the previous night did more harm than good to Nori's body, precisely at a specific point in his body. The fact that he was lying on his side with Bofur sleeping next to him positioned flush with his body in the typical spoon pose did not help at all.  
His firm hard butt pushed his crotch too maliciously, and Nori swallowed trying to calm down.

It had been an incredible night.  
Nori had literally dragged Bofur into his room, and after closing the door he had stormed the miner again looking for his lips and neck. Finally protected from prying eyes, Bofur had started to touch Nori everywhere, especially feeling his ass, which he seemed to find to his liking.

Nori wasted no time in stripping the brown dwarf from too many clothes, detaching it from the door he had pressed against and pushing it towards the bed. When Bofur touched the bed with his back he was hopelessly naked and too self-aware. He blushed brightly and tried to cover himself, much to Nori's disappointment.

"I ..." Bofur panted, but was unable to finish the phrase.

"Is it your first time?" Nori asked more curious than amazed, in a way he expected it from the behavior of the dwarf, even if he frequented the inns assiduously and usually no one was chaste in those environments.

"N-no!" The dwarf hastened to deny while taking off his hat to throw it among the other clothes “But it's as if it were. Once upon a time, a long time ago, but it was rather disappointing and ..."

"Oh, then I'll make sure you forget it!"

Nori lost time exploring the other dwarf's body, finally being able to touch it without any fear, and not only to observe from afar. He made sure to find out every part that would tear a groan from the brown dwarf, focusing particularly on the nipples and lower parts, both particularly sensitive.  
He found that Bofur particularly liked it when he paid attention to his erection with his mouth, which didn't bother the ginger dwarf at all.

Not long after, Nori was naked between the legs of the other dwarf, busy kissing and touching him while he worked to make him relax enough to start the relationship. He had a great need to enter him and fuck him mercilessly, but he didn't want to be a hungry beast, rather he wanted a sweet and pleasant embrace for the first real time of Bofur.

Nori would never forget the expression of pure ecstasy mixed with confusion of the dwarf as he came, his passionate moan followed by shortness of breath and a tired smile while relaxing on a human-sized mattress.  
But it wasn't over yet, oh no.

They loved each other practically most of the night.  
Nori had changed positions several times, bending Bofur on his hands and knees, or causing him to straddle him. He wanted to see him in all possible angles, and find out which one the miner preferred.  
And in fact he discovered that Bofur adored particularly when he was on his knees, perhaps while Nori whispered dirty things in his ear. Bofur's interest in the roughest sex pleased the thief very much, who pledged to whisper all his imaginative ideas about his inn and furniture in the miner's ear. Hearing those words, Bofur moaned louder spreading his legs and meeting with more enthusiasm the thrusts of the thief, who from this reaction he understood that the miner liked those ideas very much.

When Nori finally managed to finish, not wanting to deny his pleasure any longer, Bofur had come two more times and was a complete shaking and panting disaster, but incredibly sated and satisfied. Probably their screams and moans had forced not only the whole company but the entire neighborhood to stay awake, but this did not interest the two dwarfs in the least.  
Nori took care to clean their bodies with a clean cloth, and to place the now sleepy and exhausted miner in his arms.  
He had fallen asleep lulled by the rhythmic noise of Bofur's breathing.

And now he was awake more than ever and with a great desire to repeat the events of the previous night.  
Unfortunately, Nori knew that Bofur was too sore to have another ride with him, so he strove to find a way to satisfy his pleasure all the same.

He began to wander slowly with his hands on the other dwarf's body, trying not to wake him up abruptly. He wanted something sweet and good that morning, to accompany that sense of relaxation and fatigue that a good fuck always left the next morning.  
He stroked the brown dwarf's stomach and legs, then he headed for his morning erection, which he began to touch sloppyly.  
While working slowly on the other dwarf, Nori slowly swayed his hips to look for some friction to ease his sweet pain.

Initially, Bofur did not seem to notice the attentions that the thief was giving him, then his breathing began to get faster as some moans escaped from his throat. Finally, Bofur found himself panting and whispering the thief's name, even though he still didn't seem awake.  
Nori felt a deep sense of pleasure in hearing his name whispered in that way because it indicated how the miner had thought of it in his pleasure before that night.

Always very sweetly, Nori approached the brown dwarf's ear and began to whisper sweet and meaningless words with the aim of waking up the other dwarf. After a short time, and after a gasp, Bofur began to fidget as he made more passionate noises.

“Ah… N-nori?” 

"Shush, just turn around" He whispered through his brown hair.

Bofur did not have it repeated. He freed himself from the thief's sweet and persistent caresses and turned on himself finding himself face to face with the latter. His still sleepy face was red with embarrassment and pleasure. Nori moved closer to him and kissed him tenderly as he took both their erections with his hands and began to fondle them more insistently.  
He stifled all the magnificent sounds that came out of Bofur's mouth with his lips as their pleasure increased dramatically, also starting to get lost in it.

They didn't last long, exhausted and excited as they were. They came almost in unison, Bofur clinging strongly to Nori, while the latter rested his forehead against that of the brown. When they finally came down from the summit of pleasure, panting and sweating, they looked at each other with tired but satisfied eyes and Nori smiled.

"Good morning" He whispered as if nothing had happened.

"Yes, yes it is. And I wish it was like that every other single day!"

"Oh it will be, it will be!"

They kissed again and again, basking in their morning cuddles until Nori decided it was time to clean up, get dressed and go to the kitchen to have breakfast and face the aware gaze of the rest of the company.

Nori lost time staring at a painful and slow Bofur who got dressed, thinking about all the dirty things he had done with him and dwelling on the signs he had left on his body, feeling an extreme sense of pleasure and satisfaction while feeling his groin wake up again.  
Bofur also allowed himself long, lewd looks at the thief, thinking about how good everything they had done the night before and that morning had been.

When they made themselves presentable again, they fixed their hair and headed for the kitchen. On the way, Bofur slowed his pace, attracting Nori's attention.

“Nori, I think we should talk about many things, especially about what happened tonight. But I would like to start by asking you for those gifts ... were they courtship gifts?"

"Well ... they-"

But they were interrupted by the arrival of Fili who helped walk an increasingly pale and sore Kili. Bofur immediately offered to help the two brothers to reach the kitchen, passing an arm of the wounded man on the shoulders while Nori simply stood watching the scene.

He had never wanted to face this speech, both when he actually realized that they did not seem at all simple gifts when he spied Bofur and Bifur on the roof of the houses of Belegost, and when he animatedly discussed with Dori before revealing to him the feelings he had in against the miner. He had simply ignored the matter in order not to face the problem, and now the latter was literally slamming him in the face.

Were they courtship gifts? What did he have to answer this question?

No, because they were not made with the intention of starting a courtship, but this would have implied denying his blatant feelings towards the brown dwarf, as well as disappointing his expectations and probably losing him.  
But an affirmative answer meant starting something that Nori still didn't feel able to deal with, something serious and demanding that Nori had yet to metabolize, having never been such in his entire life.

He entered the kitchen mulling over how much he actually felt ready to stop playing with feelings and start something serious and lasting, something as a mature dwarf, when he found all his eyes on him. Bofur sat in a corner of the table next to his brothers and from how he blushed and hunched his shoulders his will to disappear or at least not to be there at that moment was evident.

The whole company stared at him in silence, some looks were amused while others, like Gloin's, were irritated. Others were merely sympathizers.

"I don't care what happened yesterday, I don't want to know, but I need to sleep at night!" The Ginger Warrior sentenced “So try to be quieter next time! This applies to you ... and you ... "He indicated Nori and Bofur, the latter who almost merged with the table, so bent over with embarrassment" And you ... and you too ... and above all you and you! Oh and let's not forget you, I heard you very well last night!"

To Nori's sincere dismay, Gloin indicated not only him and Bofur, but also Thorin and Bilbo, the latter hiding a flashy bruise on the neck with his scarf while he blushed violently, Dwalin and Ori, the latter hiding his embarrassed face in his hands while an arm of the warrior surrounded his shoulders, and Balin and Dori. Nori stood looking at Dori in horror while the latter held his gaze defiantly, Balin giggling hidden by his gloved hand.

_ Oh Mahal _ It was the only thing Nori could think of.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay, but not only did I have a busy weekend, but the chapter was also long.   
> And here we are at the resolution chapter, finally those two fools spoke to each other and did what they had to do! This is the first time I write an nsfw chapter so I hope you enjoyed it ^^'  
> As for cardamom, I don't know anything about dwarf cooking so I took a spice that seemed interesting to me and used it for my purposes. I really like to think of Dwalin as a greedy secret of sweets and spicy dishes!
> 
> I have the constant fear that nobody reads this fiction, so if you want you can leave a comment to let me know what you think, or maybe to give me some plot-level advice ^^'


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The dwarves arrive in Erebor, Smaug is defeated, but the shadow of war is approaching. Many in the company believe that they will not survive the battle.

Nori slumped onto the railing of the boat that the governor of Lake Town had kindly granted the dwarves to allow him to continue their venture. He felt his head spin heavily and his stomach turn with every roll of the ship, and that state was only partly due to seasickness.

The evening before they had celebrated their departure with all the nobility of the place and they had shown how the dwarves could be every host's nightmare. They had drunk and eaten out of all proportion, screamed and sung, thrown practically any object at hand and belched so strong as to seem roaring lions. Only the poor hobbit had given up getting drunk like never before, terribly anxious about the task ahead of him on the ever closer mountain, the rest of the company had celebrated as if there was no tomorrow.  
And in fact they could not say if they would arrive at the end of the week given their target.

It was a memorable night, and an equally memorable morning.  
They were abruptly awakened by the town governor who was in a hurry to get rid of them, and forced them to pack up in minutes.  
Nori had worried about waking Bofur who was sleeping under the table, Ori and Oin. To wake the old dwarf, Nori had to scream a lot, accentuating the hangover headache he already had. Ori, instead, was in a truly pitiful state, probably that was his first hangover in his young life.  
Nori had to help him both to get up, to get dressed and to settle his belongings, and then to drag him into the crowd bath that was waiting for them outside the building, while Dwalin was busy trying to make Thorin decent, just as drunk as the others.  
This did not allow him to think about anything else.

When the boat finally left the city, he saw Fili and Oin on the dock holding Kili, now at the end of his strength, who greeted them and then looked for someone to talk to about the situation of little Durin.  
Confused, Nori turned to Bilbo.

"They stay?" He asked with his mouth kneaded.

“Yes, Kili is not feeling well, they are unable to travel. Thorin says they will join us when Kili feels better"

Nori nodded as he looked away to stare at the stilt houses that moved further and further away, but the halfling had not yet finished speaking.

"In a way, it's a relief that they remain, at least Bofur will be left behind alone"

Bofur.  
O dear Mahal, BOFUR!

Nori straightened up immediately and looked around convulsively, looking for the miner's face among the company packed on the boat, trying to stem the deep sense of guilt that was growing in him for having completely forgotten the brown dwarf.  
When he didn't see him, he looked with despair at Bilbo, who sadly returned his gaze.

“Thorin didn't want to wait for him, even though I pointed out to him that we were one less. He didn't want to waste time with a latecomer too drunk to wake up on time like everyone else”

Something twisted in Nori's stomach and he found himself leaning over the parapet to vomit into the water. He felt Bilbo rub his back with one hand as he tried to recover coughing miserably.

"I ..." He started, but he could not continue the phrase again assailed by nausea.

Bilbo waited for the second attack to end and then handed him a handkerchief, one of those he had recovered in the human town.

“Don't worry Nori, it's not your fault. We were all coming out of an evening of too much beer and nobody cared to see who missed the appeal. I also remembered Bofur only when we were already boarding the boat"

Despite Bilbo's attempt, Nori did not feel relieved. He sat with his back against the railing of the boat and took his head in his hands. The pain had intensified in the meantime and the head seemed to almost burst.

How could he have forgotten Bofur?  
His beloved Bofur, just now that he had finally become his? Only two days before he had finally managed to get close to him and reveal his feelings and today he had abandoned him in that damned human town.

_ Congratulations Nori, you have confirmed all of Dori's fears, you are a truly miserable person! _ The thief accused himself as he closed his eyes tightly.

Bilbo saw Nori's misery and sat down next to him sympathetically. He pressed a hand to his shoulder to try again to console him.

“You will see, he won't take it, Bofur is like this. He will certainly find Oin, Fili and Kili and they will stay together until Kili recovers enough to face the journey, don't worry"

Nori nodded to the unconvinced hobbit, but nevertheless he was grateful to the little hobbit, because in fact thanks to him he felt slightly better, even if the sense of guilt was killing him.  
Hobbits were indeed a comforting breed.

*

The flames enveloped the human town as if it were the head of a small match, while the dragon swooped down from above to spit out a blaze after another. With each attack of the dragon, the company of dwarves on the mountain jerked and exclaimed in dismay.

Far from the town and perched on top of the rocks, the company watched helplessly as the dragon ravaged buildings and lives with its flames. The screams of the inhabitants of Lake Town could be heard up there, while the acrid smell of smoke, wood and burnt meat was so penetrating that some of them closed their noses just to not breathe that putrid air. Each of them kept their bewildered eyes fixed on the flames in the distance, except Thorin, who was now obsessed with the mountain and his treasure, looked at the now disemboweled atrium of his kingdom as if it were the most beautiful and interesting thing in the world in that moment.

At another attack by the dragon on the now ruined town, Bombur and Bifur jumped and looked at each other, their gaze full of meaning. Gloin also raised a hand to his mouth as he cursed Mahal, Balin and Dwalin who exchanged an anxious look.  
Their relatives were still in Lake Town and were under the dragon's enemy attack.

Nori kept his eyes fixed on the town, his hands trembling as sweat dripped from his forehead. At each dive of the dragon, the thief had a strong spasm in his hands and growled as if he was repressing a violent reaction.

One, single sentence echoed in his mind: _It is your fault if Bofur is there and it will be your fault if he dies._

That phrase and that sight were driving him mad, because in his heart he knew he was right, because on the morning of departure he had not remembered that his lover had not woken up, and he had left him in that hell of the Town. And now it was surrounded by flames with a dragon that ravaged its, because they had not been able to stop him in any way, and Nori knew very well that the chances of seeing him alive, he and the other dwarfs left, were really scarce.  
He had lost the only dwarf he had ever loved in his life, and it was all his fault!

The tears that he didn't know he had began to fall copiously on his face as he watched helplessly as the dragon flew around the bell tower of the city, one of the last buildings left standing in all that devastation. Cursed being, he did nothing but bring suffering and ruin wherever he went, especially to the dwarven race. Nori cursed that flying worm in all known ways, but that didn't make him feel any better.

He rubbed the back of his hand over his wet eyes to wipe away the tears, but they kept going down copiously. Suddenly, he felt a hand on his shoulder and saw Bombur at his side, along with Bifur.

“You will see, he will make it. Everyone will make it"

"W-how do you say that? Look! That bastard worm is destroying everything, it's impossible to survive such a thing ... it's impossible ... "He whispered the last phrase as he closed his eyes and wept bitterly.

Bombur exchanged a look with his cousin, then hugged Nori, surprising him.

“You trust my brother, Nori. He will do everything to return to you"

Those words struck the thief like a sharp blade. He abandoned himself in the embrace and vented his tears, hoping that Bombur's trust was really well placed.  
He wanted to hold on to that hope with all of himself because he knew that if Bofur didn't come back his life would be completely devastated.

A surprise exclamation from the rest of the company caught his attention and he looked in the direction of the town just as the dragon twirled on itself and then fell back on the charred remains of the houses. All the dwarves waited to see what would happen, but the huge dragon figure did not emerge from the ashes.  
It was Bilbo who broke the palpating silence.

“The dragon has fallen, it's dead! I saw him being hit by an arrow from a man on the bell tower!"

A chorus of exclamations, screams of joy and disbelief arose from all of them, still shocked and incredulous but visibly relieved. The dragon was dead, Erebor was free and they finally had their homeland again. Nori remained with his gaze fixed and his mouth open as he walked away from Bombur's embrace and began to gradually walk towards the direction of the town.

"It's over, the dragon is dead. It's .. it's over! I have to go save Bofur! " He screamed the last phrase as if it were a kind of shocking revelation, then he started running down the slope to reach the boat moored on the shore in front of the mountain.

Dori and Ori, who had observed the scene worried, launched themselves in pursuit and managed to block him on the steep side of the mountain. Ori pulled him by the arm while Dori locked him in a strong squeeze in the chest.

"Don't be stupid, you can't go there, it's not safe!"

"But I have to ... gnn... look for Bofur! Leave me, I had to look for him!"

"You won't go anywhere!"

Dori took him weight and loaded him on the shoulders as he went up the slope, Nori trying to free himself and free himself from the mortal grasp of his older brother. He screamed and despaired, holding out his hand to the burning and smoking town, blaming himself for the death of his lover.

Dori gritted his teeth and tried to ignore his brother's crisis while Ori cried silently. When they joined the others, Dori shook off his brother with little kindness and looked at him with a mixed look between compassion and fury.

"I knew it would happen, one way or another, I knew it wasn't a good idea!" But he added nothing else, too moved by the state of the thief.

They remained to contemplate the ruins of Lake Town for a long time, Bombur and Bifur huddling in Balin and Gloin and hoping to find their relatives alive, Ori holding Dwalin while Dori gently stroked the thief's now unmade hair.  
Finally, they decided to camp inside the atrium for the night, although few of them managed to rest.

*

The dwarves screamed and cried with joy when they saw the tried and dirty but smiling figures of Bofur, Fili, Kili and Oin appear in the large dusty hall. Everyone hugged them with abandon and embraced them tightly. They complimented Kili on his recovery and took an interest in the health of others, asking in detail the whole story of how the dragon attacked Lake Town and how they managed to escape.  
For their part, the survivors wanted to know how the company had faced the dragon.

Bofur hugged his family tightly, he patted the others on the shoulders and warmly complimented the hobbit for the courage he had shown in facing the dragon. He saw Nori out of the corner of the eye warmly greeting Fili and then Kili, but he did not approach him or look at him. Distracted by the other members of the company who asked questions about questions, he didn't have time to catch up with the thief. When he finally managed to free himself from the welcome crowd, Nori was gone.

Bofur felt a strong wave of disappointment and fear in his heart, he feared that the thief would not want to know more about him for some reason unknown to him.  
Maybe he misunderstood him, maybe Nori just wanted a night in the company and that's it?  
This almost brought tears to Bofur's eyes.

But while he brooding over the situation, Dori drew his attention with a gesture, then pointed to a corridor not far away with a nod. At first Bofur did not understand the suggestion, then at a rather impatient look from the tailor, he decided to take his advice and enter the corridor. As he left the room, he realized that his family, together with those of Nori, strove to attract the attention of the rest of the company with joyful screams and hugs.

The corridor looked like a long narrow, dark passageway, full of dust and cobwebs, a rather dismal place. Perhaps it was the passageway used by the servants that connected the dining room to the kitchens, but Bofur suspected that even on the best days of Erebor that place was still disturbing. As he entered the penumbra, he saw a shadow approaching. Immediately he was frightened by instinct, but then he began to relax when he distinguished the unmistakable star shape of Nori's hair.

“Nori? Wha-“ 

He did not have time to finish the phrase because Nori shortened the distances in a moment and squeezed him into an embrace so strong that it took your breath away. Bofur's chest was crushed by the thief's grasp, and in the heat Nori had pushed the miner against one of the two long walls of the corridor.

They remained motionless in that position for several moments, with Nori pressing his whole body on Bofur and hiding his face in the hollow of the neck of the other surprised dwarf. Eventually the silence was broken by a single, thief's hiccup.

“Nori…”

“I was scared, Bofur. I thought I lost you forever!"

The thief's grip loosened a little and Bofur took advantage of it to free his arms and in turn tighten the thief. He gently stroked the other dwarf's back with slow stroking, trying to calm him.

"Yes, I was afraid too. It was terrible and I seriously thought I could never see you again. But instead, thanks to Mahal, I'm here"

"I'm sorry, it's my fault, I should have insisted that morning and wake you up and ..."

Bofur silenced the thief with a kiss, pulling him to himself by grasping the elaborate braids of his beard. After a moment's hesitation due to the surprise, Nori returned the kiss.

"Stop saying bullshit" It was the only thing Bofur said, then he continued to kiss the ginger dwarf passionately.

It was a long time before they returned from the company, which meanwhile was busy searching for the arkenstone in the huge mountain treasure room. Time they spent loving each other against the corridor wall with passion and despair. Everything they hadn't been able to say until then, both for lack of time, for shyness or other reasons, was expressed by their passion.

When they returned, Nori had rather messy hair despite the fact that he had tried to fix it, and he was red and sweaty like a furnace. Bofur instead walked uncertainly and was visibly tired, but the big smile that shone on his face said a lot about what had happened between them.  
The rest of the company had the kindness not to comment on their status and Thorin immediately put them to work without even pausing to look at them.

This became the routine with which the company spent the days after the conquest of Erebor and before the great battle. The company woke up early and immediately Thorin, now totally clouded by the longing for the treasure, put them to work in the exhausting search for the Arkenstone. Occasionally someone disappeared for some time, but nobody seemed to care. If someone disappeared alone, like Oin or Gloin, the others knew that surely he had gone to rest somewhere, but if instead they disappeared in pairs, such as Dwalin and Ori, they knew that the two were busy doing something else.

Nori and Bofur disappeared at least twice a day, and often for long periods of time. They sneaked into rooms or corridors not yet inspected and indulged in passion, eager to make up for lost time in all those months of unresolved tension.

Despite Thorin's strict rules, the dwarves were starting to relax in their new home and carve out time and space for themselves. Everyone except Bilbo.  
Constantly anxious about the altered state of Thorin, Bilbo alternated moments in which he persisted in staying behind the dwarf king to try to calm him and bring him back to reason, in moments in which he fled far away and it was impossible to find him even if Thorin called and sought for hours.

Thorin's altered state had transformed their relationship into something morbid and sick, something that Bilbo struggled to get rid of despite the discomfort it caused him. By now the dwarf king when he looked at Bilbo saw his property, or worse, a part of the treasure, and it was not uncommon for him to persist in taking Bilbo right on the pile of gold in the room, forcing the rest of the company to flee away not to witness their intimacy.  
It wasn't violence because Bilbo willingly indulged himself, but this still created discomfort for both the company and the hobbit himself, who didn't want to show off that way with something that had to be intimate for them.

Everything got worse when the elven king and the archer, who had managed to kill the dragon, came to the wall hastily built in the gutted atrium, claiming their share of treasure. Most of the company agreed to reward the men who not only helped them, but also suffered the dragon's attack by losing their homes and loved ones, but they didn't want to give anything to those dirty elves. The negotiations, however, degenerated leading the sides to oppose and declare war.

What was once Thorin's company had now become Erebor's army, and soon it was to go to war. Fortunately Thorin had had the foresight to seek help from the Iron Hills, but no one within the company was happy with the turn of those events.

The situation was desperate to say the least and many of them thought that they would not see the dawn of the day after the great clash, although they would fight with all their might. It was at that tragic moment that gifts and courtship braids began to appear.  
The first were Dwalin and Ori, the latter having changed one of his small braids into the eye-catching complex braid of the beaded courtship complaint, while Dwalin proudly wore a new pair of knitted woolen gloves.

After the initial surprise, the company hastened to congratulate them, while Dori cried with joy to see his beloved brother now promised husband and Nori looked suspiciously at Dwalin.  
Then a showy and complex embroidery in gold thread with ornaments in precious stones appeared on Balin's favorite tunic, while Dori also sported a courtship braid with a showy bead of precious stones.

Finally, Bilbo began to introduce himself to the company completely covered in gold and precious stones, although he did not seem to like it. Thorin had gotten into the habit of giving him anything he found beautiful or precious or otherwise worthy of a sovereign and forced Bilbo to wear everything. The hobbit was not particularly happy to see his fingers completely covered with heavy rings or various necklaces of various sizes hanging from his neck, but he did not want to offend or sadden the king of Erebor therefore he wore everything without complaining.

This prompted Nori to ask to speak privately with his brothers the day before the battle. Bofur saw him leave with them towards some unexplored corridors that probably led to the forges of the kingdom, but he dared not follow them. Nori had specifically asked to speak privately with his brothers and although he was his lover he had to respect his will.

The Ri brothers did not return until late at night, when Bofur was busy on guard turn in front of the Erebor gate. The miner had spent all day looking for good armor and a good war hammer or the like in the armory of the kingdom, putting small axes and daggers useful in any situation here and there.  
Finally, he had eaten dinner with the rest of his companions and replaced Kili for his watch shift.

It was at that moment that Bofur surprised Bilbo on the walls of Erebor with the intention of abandoning the kingdom and taking refuge from humans. With death in his heart, Bofur spurred him on to safety and wished him happiness, but Bilbo was adamant that he would return. Bofur did not want to lose a friend as precious as the hobbit, someone with whom he had shared joys and sorrows, confided feelings and sensations and listened in the most difficult moments. But he didn't dare stop him and just went to his brother to wake him up for the next shift, giving Bilbo the chance to get away without any problems.

Once Bombur took over, Bofur sat down in front of the fire they had set up in their temporary camp. Many dwarves of the company were checking the armor and weapons they had taken from the armory, in view of the impending war. Dwalin was quietly explaining to Ori the best way to sharpen the ax blades, while Balin checked the joints of the shoulder straps of his armor. Gloin weighed the weapons and evaluated their calibration, while Dori patched the worn pieces of armor here and there. The rest of them lay down trying to sleep or engaged in thick whispered conversations while watching the fire.

Bofur stood staring at the fire without moving for some time, then Nori joined him and sat down beside him without saying a word. Bofur rested his head on the thief's shoulder without taking his eyes off the fire.

"Bilbo is gone" He whispered in such a way that only his lover could hear him.

“In the end, he really did it. I suspected he would have done something like that, for days he had been acting strangely, not to mention his relationship with Thorin"

“I'm so sorry, he was my friend. But knowing that he is safe lightens my heart, he would never have made it in battle"

Nori stood silently watching the fire as he surrounded the miner's shoulders with one arm. The tension and anguish that the company was experiencing in view of the next day was now palpable and even the most optimistic like Bofur were not immune to it. Everyone knew that the clash was pure madness and that there was very little chance of survival.

"Bofur, I would like to talk to you in private"

The miner moved from Nori's shoulder and looked at him curiously, but he nodded at his request and followed him not far away. As they passed, Ori and Dori could not hide a smile, while Bifur raised his head from his pillow looking at them suspiciously. At an eloquent nod from Dori, he widened his eyes and smiled showing all his teeth.

When they were far enough away not to be heard by the other dwarves, Nori turned abruptly to Bofur, frightening him.

"Here we are. Yes, well ... Bofur, you are a miner " Nori stammered in evident difficulty.

"Yes, so at least I knew" Bofur joked back, trying to return to his jovial disposition irreparably marred by their situation.

"And I'm a thief ..."

"I guess so"

“Please, Bofur, I am trying to tell you something important. I ... here, in short ... you, that is we ... a miner and a thief, maybe we could ... okay, just turn around!"

With a quick gesture, Nori took a silver bead decorated with geometric patterns from one of his countless pockets in his tunic and handed it to Bofur.

“Bofur, I want to start an official courtship with you. I know I should have asked you according to the official ceremonies and all those things there, but we don't have time nor is it the right situation. I don't know what will happen tomorrow, but I only know that if we survive I want to continue having you by my side!"

Bofur covered his mouth with his hands in surprise, while his eyes filled with tears of joy and his heart began to beat fast. Not trusting his voice, he nodded vigorously as he wiped his eyes as a big smile spread across his face threatening to tear him in two. Nori visibly relaxed and went over to take off his hat.

"I would like to braid your hair" he whispered.

“Y-yes, but I will wear this hairstyle anyway, it was my mother's. You can braid one of the three strands of braids if you want"

Nori quickly untied one of the two braids on the sides of the brown dwarf's face and cleverly braided the courtship braid, and then redone the hairdo. Once finished, he took a few steps to admire the work done, while Bofur touched the braid with one hand.

“I just wish I could still have your gifts here. The elves took them when they imprisoned us, they were so beautiful ... " Bofur said with regret.

"Actually, something is left!"

Nori ignored Bofur's confused gaze and went over to tap one side of the miner's hat with a finger, the one that had been torn in the attack on Belegost and stitched up with the thread given to him by the thief. Bofur exclaimed in amazement when he realized this and Nori smiled at his amazed expression. But soon after, Bofur's expression changed into something sad.

“But I have nothing to sanction our courtship. I don't know how to knit like Ori, or to embroider like Dori. Even Bilbo wrote a song for Thorin, although the latter was unable to braid his hair because it was too short. The only things I can do are extract stones and carve mediocre toys!"

"Don't worry, we'll think about it after the battle"

Bofur would have meant so much that there probably would not have been an after being thirteen against two armies of men and elves, but the embrace of the ginger dwarf made his words die in his throat and ignite a flame of hope.  
Now he had another more than valid reason to try in every way to survive the battle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> O my god, little is missing in the end! In fact, I have already finished writing the chapters, I just have to publish them!  
> In this chapter I loved Nori's very human and fragile behavior, a behavior typical of a person who does not know how to act in certain situations. I like the idea of a Nori very unbalanced on a behavioral level, that is, he is very sure of himself in certain situations (especially when it comes to using craftiness), while totally incapable in others (socialization and various relationships).  
> Also, I'm starting the spin off on Bifur. I don't know when I will publish it, but I hope soon ... and I hope it will be much shorter than this story x'D
> 
> As always, if there are any errors in the chapter please let me know that I will correct them!


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The company faces war and its consequences

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the penultimate chapter. As a small gift for accompanying me on this great journey up to here, I will immediately publish the epilogue without waiting a week, enjoy!

Bofur screamed at the top of his lungs as he followed his companions and went into the heat of the battle, swinging his weapon here and there on the orcs. All the tension of the moment, the fear of fighting and death and the horror of seeing the army of the Iron Hills dwarfs being massacred first by the elves and then by the orcs gave him a furor that made him fierce like a beast.

Finally, after witnessing for hours the massacre that was taking place under the walls of Erebor helpless, the dwarves of Thorin's company were ready to do their part and fight alongside their relatives and, only for this time, alongside the elves and humans against a common enemy.  
Bofur kept close to his relatives and out of the corner of his eye he always kept under control his lover, now an official partner, while parrying blows and attacking with powerful blows of his war hammer.

The memory of the joy he saw in his cousin's and brother's eyes when he showed up at the company alongside Nori and with the showy braid of the claim in his hair was still vivid in his mind and this infused him with even more fury and courage . He had a very good reason to win that battle and survive to the end.

But also another painful memory that still burned in his mind was making him increasingly combative: Thorin who threatened Bilbo to throw him from the walls of Erebor.  
They were moments of real terror, something the miner wouldn't easily forget. Seeing your best friend held by the neck of his king and dangling in the void one step away from death was not easy to bear, and in fact when Thorin finally left him thanks to the words of the magician Gandalf he immediately went out of his way to help him to run away from the dwarf now gone mad.  
He would hardly have forgiven that gesture to their king, even though he was not a grudging dwarf, but he was also aware that Thorin had done so because of the disease. Old Thorin, the real Thorin, would never have placed a stupid shiny stone before the love he had for the hobby.  
This is why Bofur fought with all of himself, to vent his anger at all the situation that the company had been forced to endure.

At some point in the fray, the brown dwarf saw an enemy approach dangerously to Nori, and although the thief was ready to hit and shoot him down, Bofur threw his little ax against the monster. Nori turned abruptly to look at him confused and agitated, but when he saw the smile of his lover as he put both hands on the rod of his war hammer, he softened and returned the smile.  
Subsequently, the ax returned to the owner, even risking to open his skull in two parts, who would have said that Ori had such a formidable aim even with throwing axes?

They fought and looked over their shoulders for a long time, then suddenly Bifur got stuck with his ax on his head with another orc he had just shot down. Through a very unconventional way, the two Ur brothers managed to free him by extracting the hatchet from his skull. And it was at that moment that they discovered that Bifur had regained the ability to speak common language correctly. The joy they felt was such that for a few moments they forgot they were in the midst of a war and celebrated by embracing each other.

But the battle was so fierce that the moment did not last long and the Ur family was again forced to fight to survive. The fighting was so fierce from that point on that the three were split and Bofur no longer had the opportunity to control his family or to see his partner fight. This, however, gave him the opportunity to mount on one of those horrible and modified monstrous trolls that the orcs used to break through the enemy ranks. Driving that thing was really difficult, but once Bofur figured out how to manage it he felt invincible and ready to help his friends.

*

Being a thief also meant having an agility out of the ordinary and quick reflexes. Nori was using these qualities to take down as many orcs as possible without being hurt, which was not easy given that they were thousands and armed with rudimentary weapons but nevertheless effective. In addition, out of the corner of his eye he controlled both his brother Ori and his lover Bofur. Both were proving very good in combat and Nori was genuinely proud of it.

Dwalin fought alongside Ori, obstinate not to move even one step away from his promised husband. Nori was happy to see him there because it meant he was a trustworthy dwarf. He fought like an angry beast and all the enemies that clashed with him met a wall made of muscles, growling teeth and axes.  
He was practically a sickle that cut the lawn in waves.

It was not the first time that Nori saw Dwalin fight in a clash, but this time it was different, this time they were at war and finally the thief understood why there were so many legends and rumors about his future brother-in-law.

Ori was also fascinated by the warrior's way of fighting, those few times that he had time to look at him, and smiled warmly at him whenever their eyes met.  
Nori could not see Dori, but he was certainly somewhere among the orcs making carnage, but he had a good view of the Ur family and this reassured him.

They continued to fight, looking over their shoulders for a long time, accumulating corpses of orcs on the ground and smearing their blood.  
Then Balin appeared from the crowd on a cart pulled by ibex and attracted Dwalin's attention, informing him that Thorin wanted to go to Azog to challenge and kill him. Dwalin looked at his brother in amazement, then turned to look at Ori who, unaware of everything, continued to fight against the orcs.  
Nori noticed the indecision that divided the warrior: to stay to protect his beloved or go and protect his childhood friend and his king?

It was a decision that was literally tearing Dwalin apart, Nori could tell from the fact that he could not make a decision instantly as he used to do during the clashes, when there was no time to think. Balin called him impatiently, well aware that he could not waste time, and Nori joined him dodging a slash from an orc.

"Go! I'll take care of my brother!"

“But-“

“Go!” The ginger dwarf screamed as he turned around and parried a blow of the club.

Dwalin mentioned a thank you and hurried to mount on the cart with his brother, and then disappear among the horde of orcs, mowing many with the spurs mounted on the wheels.  
Nori couldn't hold back a smile as he stabbed an orc with a hidden knife. Dwalin, the chief of the Belegost guards, the one who had threatened him with death at the beginning of the mission, was now thanking him.

_ You never know what the future can hold for you! _ He thought playfully, then was drawn to Ori's panicked voice.

"Nori! Where's Dwalin?"

“He went with Balin to Thorin. Don't worry, I'm here!"

"Did Bofur also go with him?"

"What? No, he's ... where the hell is Bofur?"

Nori screamed the lastphrase when looking around he didn't see his partner. He began to look frantically for him as he barely dodged the blows of the orcs, the panic that began to assail him.  
Had he been struck at a time when he was distracted and now he was on the ground suffering?  
Had an orc managed to kill him?  
Or worse, they kidnapped him?  
Damned Mahal, how could he have been so stupid that he didn't notice it before?

But suddenly, from behind a large rock, a cave troll mutilated and reinforced with armor and iron weapons emerged, and on top of that monster was the miner who was screaming from euphoria.  
Evidently he was enjoying driving that thing through the ranks of the orcs and cleaning it up.  
Nori stared at him with his mouth open, incredulous at the sight, and did not notice an orc who had aimed at him. Fortunately, at that moment Dori appeared at his side who parried the body and returned it by mutilating the orc that fell to the ground in pain.

"What are you up to, idiot? Luckily I was keeping an eye on you!" He asked furiously, then saw Bofur on the troll following Nori's gaze.

“Mahal dear bless me! This will become legend. That's a dwarf to marry, Nori!"

"Yes, yes he is!" Nori agreed, transforming his incredulous expression into a smile.

*

When Bilbo managed to awaken, a dull pain in the head hit him instantly making him moan loudly. He had tarnished eyes and a kneaded mouth, his body stiff with prolonged immobility under a thin layer of fresh snow, his throat as dry as a desert. He tried to sit up to ease the wave of nausea that was hitting him, and to try to understand where it was and what had happened. Slowly, as he looked around, the memories returned and with them also the pain.

He had seen Fili being pierced by the sword of that dirty orc, he had seen him fall into the void. He had heard Kili's excruciating scream as he looked at his brother on the ground and faced the orcs mad with grief. He had seen Thorin run against Azog, the anger that oozed from every part of his body. The last thing he remembered was Dwalin fighting against the orcs in an attempt to protect him while he hit them with stones.

He looked around still dazed, but he saw nothing but corpses of orcs. There was no trace of his friends.  
He tried to stand up and staggered a few steps, then he regained his balance and started running in the direction in which he had last seen the whole Durin line. He ran at breakneck speed for a long time, heedless of the head wound that still throbbed and bleed, but he managed to reach the point where he had seen Fili fall.

In fact, little Durin was still there, lying on the ground among the snowflakes, motionless as blood flowed from him. Bilbo hurried to kneel beside him and try to wake him up with nervous gestures and small slaps on the face.

"Fili! Fili! It's me, Bilbo. Fili wake up, for Yavanna's sake, please wake up!"

“Bi…lbo…?” 

"Oh for heaven's sake Fili, hold on!"

The hobbit tried to make comfortable the decomposed body of the dwarf, paying close attention to his face to understand if he felt pain and where, but Fili's face was impassive and his gaze lost in emptiness.

"Ki...li?" He asked in a low voice.

"He's fine, he ... he's fine. But now we think of you, you have to resist Fili, they are coming to get you to take you to the infirmary"

Actually, Bilbo had no idea where Kili was or if anyone was really trying to reach them, but nevertheless he lied to the dwarf and tried to smile as he removed the hair from his face, his eyes already swollen with tears.

“Bilbo!” 

The hobbit spun around to hear Dwalin's voice calling his name and almost cried with joy. He hurriedly entrusted the wounded dwarf to the care of Dwalin, who having already been at war several times, knew better than he what to do in that situation, making sure that he took him to one of the infirmaries set up by the various sides.  
He ran through the ruins looking for Kili and Thorin, praying in his heart to find them still alive, when he heard a woman's moans. In reality, when he reached her, he discovered that it was not a human but a female elf, who was crying over Kili's body.

Bilbo felt a strong feeling of anguish at seeing her and hurried to reach her.

"He ... he is ..." He asked taking the elf by surprise.

“No, but he is seriously injured. It's all my fault!"

"This is not the time to blame ourselves for what happened. Dwalin, another dwarf, is taking his brother to an infirmary. Please try to reach him, we must try to save Kili!"

"You're right, little man" the female elf agreed wiping her tears and pulling herself up "Forgive my moment of weakness. I'll take Kili to a doctor right away!"

Bilbo was incredibly impressed with how the female elf picked up the dwarf without showing the slightest effort, his strength was amazing. But the hobbit knew he couldn't waste time, he absolutely had to find Thorin and go back to their companions. As he ran through the ruins in search of the king under the mountain, he wished with all his heart that he was not dead.

Despite his sick and paranoid behavior of those last days, despite his attempt to assassinate him by throwing him from the walls of Erebor, Bilbo could not hate him. In his heart he knew that the dwarf had acted under the evil influence of the gold disease, and he could not help but love him. He also knew that if Thorin had managed to fight the disease and return to himself he would have started to love him as before, treating him as if he were one of the most precious jewels in the world.

The memories of Thorin and his love for him spurred the hobbit to run even faster. When he noticed that there were only corpses of orcs in the ruins, the halfling headed for the frozen river that bordered the ruins.  
It was there that he found Thorin.

Lying not far from the pale orc's corpse, Thorin was staring at the sky with a glazed look while bleeding profusely from various wounds, especially from the one on his chest.  
He seemed dead.  
Bilbo's eyes filled with tears as he crossed the river bank and ran barefoot on the solid ice of the river. He slumped over Thorin's body and tried to revive him as he did with Fili, calling and shaking him with a desperate insistence.

Again, his persistence rewarded him and Thorin's tired gaze landed on him. Bilbo smiled at him and announced the end of the war, but Thorin wasn't interested in that news, rather he wanted to make up for Bilbo before he died. Tears fell copiously on the hobbit's cheeks as he listened to Thorin's weak voice praising him and his love for a comfortable and simple life, and regretting that many in the world did not think the same way and for this the world a dark place.

As Thorin spoke, Bilbo saw the shadows of the great birds of prey engaged in combat project themselves and remembered them and their providential intervention.  
But immediately he returned his attention to Thorin when the latter stopped talking, remaining with his gaze fixed upwards. Bilbo shook him again and again, talking and calling him, but Thorin seemed to have passed away.

"Thorin, Thorin please... don't leave me, please... Look! Look, the eagles! Eagles have come to help us! We have won, Thorin, the mountain is finally free and you will be crowned king! Thori ... Thorin! The eagles, look at the eagles..."

His voice trembled and finally faded as he was shocked by sobs. He curled up on Thorin's body, resting his head on his shoulder as he cried, torn apart by pain.

“E..agle…s”

Bilbo jerked his head up, looking with tear-faded eyes Thorin who moved his lips slightly whispering the word eagles. Immediately he took his face in his hands and turned it towards him.

"Thorin, Thorin look at me! Hold on, we'll take you to Oin or some other doctor, but you have to resist! Do it for me, Thorin, because I love you!"

The dwarf's eyes narrowed slightly as they began to moisten. Bilbo noticed that Thorin's body was rapidly cooling under the snowflakes and took off his jacket to cover the dwarf. The bitter cold entered his bones instantly but Bilbo tried not to notice it as he pledged to keep Thorin conscious.  
Fortunately, he was soon joined by Dwalin and other members of the company who immediately took the dying dwarf into custody and transported him to the infirmaries of the nearest camp. When Thorin's body disappeared from his sight, Bilbo allowed himself to pass out from fatigue and the mixture of strong emotions in Gloin's arms.

*

The field infirmary tent built hurriedly at the foot of the mountain entrance was full of wounded and dying people of all kinds, except the orcs. Humans, dwarves and elves shared the same sufferings in the same place, often they were even placed side by side on camp beds. Doctors of all races tried to heal the wounded in the large common tent without distinction.

Elven doctors stood out for their superior medical knowledge, making the dwarves rather envious of their abilities, but they weren't very good at keeping the more violent or uncooperative patients still, where the dwarves were rather good. Human doctors instead tried to learn from both races, having a rather poor knowledge of medicine.  
The screams filled the whole environment, followed by the acrid smell of sweat, blood and more.  
It was a really critical and difficult situation, but nobody complained, not when they had managed to win the war.

In a more secluded corner of the tent there was a small piece of fabric that formed a small room, dividing some camp beds from the rest of the room. It was the area reserved for war heroes, or those who had accompanied Thorin on the impossible and miraculous quest of freeing Erebor from the dragon.  
All the companions of the king under the mountain had been honored with the title of war heroes and heroes of Erebor and the dwarven kingdoms, and the first sketches of celebratory songs were already circulating about them. Many of those who had participated in the battle, especially among the dwarves, boasted that they had fought alongside them or had even seen them fight the orcs. The rumors magnified the stories about them, making them sometimes almost fantastic.

In the small secluded room lay the tortured bodies of Thorin, Kili and Fili on the camp beds, all three seriously injured and constantly visited by the best doctors available. On other beds placed at the edges of the room rested Bifur, Bofur and Dwalin. The other dwarves in the company had been discharged or had not suffered any injuries and were free to enter and exit the tent at their leisure.

Bilbo had taken advantage of the situation to always stay at the king's bedside, looking after him as best he could and helping doctors to take care of him and his nephews. The other patients had become accustomed to his constant presence and almost paid no attention to it.  
Every day Ori went to visit his promised spouse, bringing him something good to eat, found who knows where. Each time, the scribe worried about whether Dwalin's wounds in his chest and arms were healing, the concern always high in his shy gaze. Sometimes he was accompanied by Balin and Dori, the first eager to know about his brother's health, the second eager instead of checking on the scribe.

Bofur spent all his free time chatting with Bifur, who since he no longer had the ax stuck in his skull he had a great desire to talk about anything. They spent their days chatting on various subjects, or exchanging jokes and jokes and laughing like crazy. Often, however, Bofur hid the glitter of his eyes due to the emotion he felt in seeing again his cousin able to speak and reason correctly.

Bifur had been kept under observation in the event that unpleasant consequences had occurred after the violent and sudden removal of the ax, while Bofur was paying the consequences of having led an armored troll without too much caution.  
In the heat of the moment it hadn't occurred to him that falling from such a height would cause serious injuries, and when he fell on the frozen river while helping Thorin's chariot to reach Azog he was lucky to break only an arm and a few ribs.  
The recovery would have been long, but he was not seriously injured and this was important.

Otherwise it was the situation of Thorin and his nephews. Bilbo's emaciated and anxious state revealed the seriousness of the situation. Thorin, Kili and Fili had their lives hanging by a thread, the doctors had not been able to ensure their survival.  
Bilbo tried to be strong for them, cleaned them with a wet cloth when needed, fed them when they needed to eat and helped doctors change their clothes when they got dirty. But Bofur knew that when he thought he was alone, the hobbit indulged in desperate and disconsolate crying, frightened by the possibility of having to live without the Durin dynasty.

Sometimes Gloin and Oin also visited the wounded, the latter when he managed to find some time between one visit and another. Nori showed up sporadically, saddening Bofur, ashamed of the exaggerated reaction he had had when he saw Bofur injured and blindfolded in that way. Initially he was on the verge of tears, then he tormented the doctors in the hope that they would use some miracle cure to heal Bofur, finally he had sought Gandalf in the hope that at least he could do something. Nori was so insistent that the magician had to threaten to turn him into a toad to make him stop.

Bofur had laughed all the time, cursing his broken bones and the pain they caused him when he laughed, but he couldn't stop himself. More than the behavior of his promised husband, it was the happiness of seeing him almost unharmed that made him laugh. Nori had not been injured during the battle, although he had flashy cuts on his clothes and scratches on the face, he had been very lucky or very skilled in dodging all the blows of his opponents.

Regular visitors to the heroes of Erebor also included the red-haired female elf who had found and brought Kili to the infirmary and Dain. The elf had a very caring attitude towards Kili, an attitude that did not go unnoticed by any of them. The company knew of Kili's strange tendency to prefer the beauty of the elves to that of the dwarves or humans, a trend strongly disapproved of by Thorin, so it was no surprise to find out that the elf was very close to him. Dain instead visited his cousin regularly in the hope that he would regain consciousness, so that he could crown him king of Erebor as he deserved. In the meantime, he was the one who administered the nascent kingdom, even though he had a great need and a great desire to return to the Iron Hills from his loved ones and his subjects.

It was in this convalescent atmosphere that lasted for weeks that the Durin dynasty finally awoke. The first to regain consciousness was Kili, cradled by the soft hands of the elf, and when his confused and weak gaze landed on her face, he smiled sweetly. Then it was Thorin's turn, to Bilbo's delight that he cried for hours as he busied himself almost hysterically around the dwarf, showering him with thoughtfulness beyond necessity. But Thorin dared not complain, too grateful for the hobbit's presence and the fact that he hadn't decided to abandon him after his illness clouded his mind, a disease that has now completely disappeared.

The last to awaken was Fili, the most serious of all. The blade that had pierced his chest and the fall from such a tall tower had reduced him really badly, but he was alive and could heal. An elf or a human would not have survived similar injuries, but Fili was a dwarf and moreover a descendant of Durin, so he managed with great difficulty to recover.

When finally all the members of the company were able to move and leave the infirmary, the celebrations for the return of the king under the mountain were officially started. Rivers of beer and an exaggerated amount of food traversed the rooms now back to their former glory where dwarves, men and elves sang and danced for whole nights without ever stopping. Thorin wasn't particularly happy with that situation, mainly because he had to see those elven bastards walking in the glorious halls of Erebor, but Dain had been clear on the importance of restoring relations with neighboring realms for the survival of the mountain itself, so Thorin had to turn a blind eye.

His mood, and the mood of the whole company, improved considerably when at the end of the celebrations he was officially crowned king under the mountain and absolute master of the kingdom of Erebor. All the dwarves of the company were moved by the sight of their sovereign with the crown on his head sitting on the throne of the kingdom, a throne conquered with so much effort and sweat. And many wept with joy at seeing the treasure of Erebor being divided into fourteen equal parts, each that mattered more than a dwarf could ever spend in one lifetime, and delivered to members of the company.

As soon as he was crowned and the reward for his adventure companions delivered, Thorin immediately took care of rewarding more his first, trusted subjects with honors and high social positions.  
Fili was definitively formalized as Thorin's legitimate and undisputed heir, while Kili instead became the ambassador of the kingdom of Erebor to the elves of Mirkwood, a convenient way of consenting the bizarre relationship between him and Tauriel, even though he would have spent most of his time in Erebor rather than in the elven kingdom. Dwalin was elected as the new chief of the city guard, while Balin again became the king's adviser. Ori became the first scribe of the kingdom's court, while Dori had been declared official tailor of the royal family and the court. Bombur became the royal cook, while in Bifur they entrusted training for the recruits of the kingdom's army. Bofur became the superintendent of the mines of Erebor, nobody could extract a single stone in the kingdom under the mountain without the approval of the brown dwarf, while Oin became the first court doctor. Gloin willingly accepted his position as new ambassador of Erebor to the dwarven and human realms, while Nori became the eyes and ears of the king where they could not go.

Last left, Bilbo hid a certain nervousness when Thorin finally turned to him. The king got up and slowly approached the hobbit, the wounds that still caused him severe pain with each movement, until he stopped in front of his beloved. Bilbo looked at him almost trembling, not knowing what to expect.  
Maybe this is a punishment for stealing the arkenstone?  
Or maybe a reward for saving the Durin dynasty?

But when Thorin knelt in front of him, bending down to kiss his feet, everyone was amazed. Bilbo squeaked in amazement, but the look Thorin gave him silenced him instantly. It was a look of pure adoration, of deep love and of great respect.

"Bilbo Baggins" He aproposed him in a thunderous voice, shaking him into the bones "Hobbit of Bag End, The Shire. Someone who had nothing to do with this adventure, who was dragged into his will and who was taken away from the comforts of his home for miles of mud, rain, orcs and deadly woods. Bilbo Baggins, a small hobbit with a big heart and intrepid courage, the one who saved my life by risking his own, who despite my arrogant and contemptuous behavior he decided to help us recover our home, he who already had one all his. The one who staked his honor to restore mine, who was close to me when I faced the darkest hour, and who made difficult decisions when all of us others were unable to do so. Bilbo Baggins, whatever I can offer you will never repay everything you have done for my people, for my company, for me"

He paused to gather ideas for how to say the next words, while the words just spoken were assimilated by everyone. Bilbo was about to cry as he covered his mouth with his hands, deeply moved by those words.  
Thorin moved on his knees on one leg as he took Bilbo's hands and held them in his.

“Bilbo Baggins, I have nothing to offer you that can even come close to the value of your words and actions, nothing except myself. I offer you myself, now and forever, I offer you my loyalty, my love, my mind, my body. Bilbo, would you accept becoming my real consort?"

The hobbit almost passed out at those words as a buzz rose from the audience, the dwarves who talked among themselves mostly confused and excited by this unexpected event. The company smiled and pushed each other, the news was not new for them and they had been waiting for it for some time.  
Bilbo took a moment to try to recompose himself, or at least find again the voice that had been clouded by the emotion and tears of pure joy that fell on his cheeks.  
He took a few long breaths to calm himself, then sniffed.

"Yes, of course I want you. Oh dear Yavanna, I'm ... I'm going to pass out!"


	14. Chapter 14 - Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Epilogue

Dwalin wiped his sweaty forehead as he walked through the corridors surrounded by the twilight of Erebor. He felt completely exhausted and eager only for a plate of hot food, a relaxing bath and a good rest.  
It had been a very long and busy day.

Since Erebor had returned under the expert hands of the dwarves, the kingdom had grown and thrived like never before. Its commercial relations with other colonies and kingdoms of other races, its mines rich in minerals and precious stones and the constant need for manpower had attracted hundreds and hundreds of caravans of dwarfs coming mainly from the Blue Mountains.  
Many people who had to be checked, reported, relocated. Not to mention the crime that was already taking shape in the kingdom.

Those were days when Dwalin worked tirelessly, days in which they had already incarcerated several scoundrels and dismantled as many illicit trades. Sometimes Dwalin wondered what his brother-in-law Nori was doing rather than having fun serving beer and sausages in his new tavern.  
Days when he had seen his husband only in passing and had not been able to exchange a word with him.

Husband, already. That word sounded so strange in Dwalin's mind, but at the same time it was so sweet that it made him smile just at the thought.  
Husband.  
Ori and he had married the ritual officiated by the king himself a week after the coronation. It had been a party worthy of the most famous songs, where not a single dwarf had remained sober. Even Bilbo had drunk so much that Thorin had been forced to pick him up and take him away before he collapsed on some table. Dwalin didn't remember most of the party so much he had been drunk, but someone had told him that at one point Thorin and he had challenged each other for an ax fight, which ended in a little scuffle. Well at least that explained all the bruises he had found on his body the next day.

He laboriously climbed a small flight of stairs, then turned into another corridor leading to the upscale neighborhoods of Erebor. Thorin had been adamant on this point: all his company had to be treated in the best possible way, and this also meant attributing to his the most beautiful and noble rooms of the entire mountain.  
It was not just any noble district, it was the wing of the kingdom where the king himself resided. Dwalin thought it was too much for his humble person, accustomed to a Spartan life and the bare necessities, but deep down he was deeply flattered by this concession. Furthermore, he wanted to ensure his every possible ease to his Ori.

Finally he saw the finely decorated door of his home and sighed with relief.  
He entered without knocking, but announced his presence as he placed his heavy axes in the living room. The house was not very large, in fact it had only a sitting room, a bedroom and a large bathroom, but for him and Ori it was enough.

Ori looked up from the book he was reading and immediately glowed with joy when he saw the warrior. He smiled and got up from the armchair near the fireplace on which he was sitting and went to greet his husband.

"Dwalin, you are back! We can finally be together tonight!"

Dwalin hesitated as Ori threw his arms around his neck and hugged him affectionately, kissing his bearded cheek. Those gestures so intimate and affectionate between spouses were still so new to him that he was always shocked when he received one. But receiving such a welcome from Ori was something he had dreamed of for a long time so he returned the hug and kissed the other dwarf's forehead affectionately.

"Yes. Sorry if I have been absent these days, there has been a lot of work to do"

"Don't worry, Nori also told me that he is very busy straightening all the newbies who have arrived in Erebor, even if I don't quite understand what it means"

"Yes, right, don’t worry. You know how strange your brother is sometimes, don't you?" Dwalin dissimulated, having understood very well the meaning of that phrase but not wanting to investigate further.

Still with a sweet smile, Ori moved away from Dwalin and pointed to a small cauldron mounted on the fireplace and the pan beside him.

“I started to heat the soup for dinner. There is also hot water for the bathtub in case you want to take a bath. Dori gave me a very good smelling soap, he says he bought it from an elf merchant"

Dwalin smiled to see and hear his husband who went out of his way to put him at ease after that long and tiring day of work. He watched as he hurried to get a wooden bowl and pour him a plate of hot soup as he told how he had spent his day writing reports for Balin.  
When he finished eating, he stretched trying to relieve the sore shoulders.

"I should have a nice bath, that's exactly what I wants"

"Oh, I'll get it ready for you then!"

"No" He put a hand on the scribe's small shoulder. "Don't worry, I'll prepare it myself. Rather, would you like to bathe with me?"

Ori blushed brightly and hid his face in his large scarf, but nodded shyly. Dwalin smiled and squeezed his shoulder, then went to get the cauldron full of water on the fire.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw the slender figure of the dwarf take the book from the armchair and place it in a small library, then disappear beyond the bathroom door and smiled.

He felt like a lucky dwarf, a very , very lucky dwarf.

*

Balin was immersed in total silence while writing down all the calculations he made using a small abacus on a parchment.  
Sitting at the table in his exquisite sitting room furnished according to the taste of the latest Erebor fashion, peace was absolute and Balin's concentration as well. It was necessary to calculate all the expenses and income of the kingdom in the last month and plan the money to be allocated for the following month. The slightest mistake would have resulted in serious imbalances in the balance of the kingdom, and a considerable amount of money lost.

The quiet was suddenly interrupted by the abrupt opening of the living room door and the arrival of a rather agitated Dori full of bulky bags and bundles. It was like the sudden crash of a storm on a wheat field. His clumsy figure noisily entered the room as he grumbled who knows what and placed the load on the table with evident relief. Balin hurriedly moved the ink-filled inkpot before all the bundles turned it upside down, putting away all his equipment and hurriedly pinning something on the parchment.

"Damn, how heavy this stuff is, I'm exhausted!" He exclaimed sitting heavily on a chair.

Balin smiled at his husband and stroked his leg with evident sympathy.

"How did it go to the market? I have known that there are many merchandise from the realms of men and elves. Still nothing from The Shire but Bilbo is working for a substantial commercial exchange between dwarves and hobbits"

“A real tragedy! I have not found even a cloth of the appropriate color, the spools of thread are almost non-existent, not to mention the general quality of the fabrics! It's a disaster, Balin, I will never be able to make that suit!"

Dori began to complain about the difficulty of his task compounded by the poor quality of the merchandise and the incompetence of the merchants, dwelling on the importance of the material with which the sewing needles were forged for the success of the product. Balin listened patiently to all the complaints, unable to grasp most of their meaning, without ever losing his smile. When Dori finally finished his philippic, the white dwarf waited a few moments to make sure that the other dwarf had calmed down, then tried to reassure him with sweet words.

“Dori, my love, you are getting too excited again. Thorin asked you to make a suit for Bilbo, you shouldn't worry so much"

"It is a suit for the royal consort! Furthermore, it is not just any tunic, it is a hobbit suit. I never made a hobbit suit, do you understand? I don't want to make a bad impression with our king!"

Dori rubbed his hands nervously on his face, then he jumped up and went to get the teapot with which he boiled water for tea on the fire.

“I bought a new aromatic tea from the elves, they say it is very relaxing. You should find the bag in one of my bags"

Balin rummaged through the various bags and bundles that Dori had brought from the market, finding it wrapped in a particular leaf tied with string. While rummaging, however, the dwarf also noticed several rolls of fine fabrics of different colors, too many to make a single hobbit suit.

"I noticed you bought a lot of fabric." He began as he handed the tea to his husband.

"Ah yes, I decided to make two ceremonial tunics for that idiot of my brother and Bofur, for when he finally decides to close that bizarre courtship and ask him to marry him"

Balin laughed heartily as he hugged Dori from behind, resting his chin on his shoulder.

"Do you think it will happen soon?" He asked with evident amusement while holding the other dwarf.

“If he is as intelligent as he likes to brag he will do it as soon as possible. Bofur has become a legend thanks to his exploits in the war, there are many dwarves who have set their eyes on him. If Nori doesn't want to risk losing him, he should act immediately"

"To me Bofur seems interested only in your brother"

"Yes, I think so too, but better be careful"

Balin smiled at those words and whispered in Dori's ear.

"So is that why you insisted on getting married the day after the coronation? Why didn't you want others to put their eyes on me?"

At those words Dori whirled and held the white dwarf tightly against him, risking suffocating him.

“Balin, son of Fundin. He who has faced and stopped dozens of orcs riding a warg on an icy river with only a darts shooter. You are a living legend, I couldn't risk that- "

"You wouldn't have risked anything anyway!"

Balin pressed a sweet kiss on Dori's lips, who smiled and returned the affectionate gesture. The water began to boil but no one seemed to notice it as they remembered because they had chosen each other.

*

Bilbo's eyes swelled with tears as he rushed the phrases hastily written on the letter arrived with a caravan of dwarves from the Shire. His hands trembled and squeezed the paper so tightly that it wrinkled at the sides, risking tearing it.  
Thorin watched him with apprehension as the first tears began to fall on the cheeks of the little hobbit, not knowing what to do. Whatever news had come from the halfling's peaceful homeland was upsetting Bilbo to the point of leaving him in tears.

When he finally finished reading the letter, Bilbo laid it on the table as he finally indulged in a liberating cry, covering his face with his hands as he sobbed. Thorin was right next to him to console him, holding him in his arms and holding him there.

"Armalime, what happened? What does the letter say?"

"My cousins" He managed to say after a few sobs "My cousins are dead, Thorin! Drogo and Primula are gone!"

Thorin hugged his husband closer in trying to calm him and console him.

“I'm here Bilbo! I'm so sorry for your loss"

"They ... sigh ... they left a child, Frodo. In the letter, The Shire ask me if I'm going to take care of him being the closest relative"

"And what would you like to do?" Thorin asked cautiously.

"I ... I don't know, Thorin. Frodo is so young and Erebor so far and different from the Shire. I'm not sure it's a good idea to have him come here"

"Instead you should!"

Bilbo looked in amazement at Thorin who returned his gaze with determination.

“Bilbo, Frodo needs someone who loves him and supports him in this difficult time. From what you have told me, your relatives are not pleasant people, Frodo would be destined for an unhappy life with them. Here with us instead he would be loved and well liked by all the dwarves, and treated as the son of the royal consort. Like ... our son"

Thorin spoke the last words with evident amazement, realizing their meaning himself as he pronounced them. Adopting little Frodo meant becoming his legal guardians, raising him and educating him, just like his parents. Bilbo realized that thought too, because he looked at Thorin with watery and amazed eyes for a long time in silence.

"And Fili?" It was the only objection he managed to raise.

“Fili has been legitimized as the next successor to the throne, he must not fear anything or anyone. He will be my heir, no one else. Frodo will not be an obstacle, moreover I am quite sure that those devils of my nephews will get along very well with little Frodo"

“Do you really want to adopt it? Do you really want to become a parent with me?" Bilbo asked timidly.

"Bilbo" Thorin began kissing his wet cheeks "I want to spend the rest of my life with you and start a family. Frodo's arrival will be nothing but the fulfillment of my desire. I will love him as if he were my son, indeed our son"

Bilbo was moved by those words and began to cry again, but this time they were not tears of pain. He hid his face in his husband's chest and thanked him in a trembling voice. Thorin wrapped him in his strong arms and rocked him until he calmed down.

“The next caravan for the Blue Mountains will leave tomorrow morning. I'll have Ori write a reply letter, then ask Balin to prepare everything necessary for Frodo's arrival"

*

Nori put the freshly washed wooden mug on a rack behind the counter, next to the huge barrels that contained various types of beers from all parts of Middle-earth. He put down the dishcloth with which he was drying the dishes and then stopped to look at his clean and empty room, ready for the next opening of that evening.  
It was simply gorgeous.

With the money received as loot for the mission, Nori had managed to open his tavern for a modest sum, fulfilling the dream he had developed during the trip. He had chosen a very populous and rather central neighborhood, one of those that guaranteed a large amount of customers every evening, and he had taken care of every detail, from the furniture to the menu served, up to the employees hired.

The inn was always full every night, being also the first inn open in Erebor after the dragon attack, and Nori had further enriched himself with all his income. In addition, he had also managed to become a strategic point for the local underworld, creating a free zone where all the crime of Erebor flowed.

Thanks to his role as a spymaster, he knew everything that happened in Erebor, and so did the king, and he was practically untouchable. He had ended with criminal life, he was no longer a thief like in Belegost, but he was interested in the underworld himself, becoming a sort of guide for all the crime of Erebor, dictating laws and spreading a sort of underworld moral code that didn't go too far against the legality that instead protected his brother-in-law Dwalin.  
The general idea was not to turn against Nori and not make him angry if you cared about your life.

He came out from behind the counter and waited for a certain dwarf to arrive. Bofur had never been to the inn before because of his injuries that had forced him to bed all that time. He had barely managed to participate in the coronation and marriages of his relatives and the king, but otherwise he had not moved from his home, although he still performed his duty as supervisor of the mines of the kingdom. Nori went to visit him regularly and to tell him about the place and the gossip he listened around, carefully avoiding to tell him the most unpleasant stories about the local underworld, listening to his chatter about his brothers and Bilbo.

But now he was healed enough to walk without problems and Nori was anxious to show him the place.  
But this time it wasn't for that kind of reason.  
With a trembling hand, Nori checked for the umpteenth time whether the box was in its place in his tunic pocket, not trusting. He was so nervous that he couldn't sit still so he started drumming his fingers on the smooth surface of the counter.  
The wait was killing him.

Then finally the inn door opened with a small bell and the unmistakably shaped hat of Bofur peeked into the building, followed by his sunny smile.

"So this is the famous inn you were telling me about!" He exclaimed as he entered and looked around, whistling to see the good taste in the furniture.

Unlike that of Belegost that he frequented in the miners' quarter, the inn of Nori was clean and well lit and did not have the typical unpleasant odors from the tavern. The room was large and well ventilated and the fireplace was large and placed in the center of the wall to heat the room.

Bofur approached Nori as he turned on himself to observe the environment, then gave a shy smile to the ginger dwarf.

"It is a really nice place! The table ... seem to me to be well made..."

He cast a rather significant glance at Nori. The ginger dwarf raised his eyebrows in evident amazement, amused by the fact that Bofur had not forgotten all the nice ideas about the inn furniture that he had whispered to him several times while making love.  
But that day Nori hadn't invited him for that, even if those words awakened a certain part of him, so he laughed heartily at his insinuation.

“Yes, they really are, Dori helped me choose them. But we are not here for the tables today, rather I wanted to show you the place and talk to you about an important thing"

Bofur looked at him in confusion, what could have been so important that he had to talk about it in an empty inn before opening? It was simply absurd.  
But Nori was adamant. He asked Bofur to come out while he went to get something, and to wait for him outside the inn.  
Increasingly confused, Bofur came out of the inn and started waiting for him, curious to see what his partner was planning.  
Nori hurried out of the back door of the inn.

Bofur waited for a few minutes, not knowing what to think, until he heard noises coming from the surrounding roofs. Nori made sure to make a lot of noise as he came down from a roof and went to meet Bofur, the affable smile of a thief visible in his thick beard.

"Hey, pal, do you have any coins?" He asked almost laughing while showing coins between his fingers.

"Oh please, Nori!" Bofur laughed back, unable to restrain himself as he watched the dwarf pretend to rob him as it once was.

"No, no I'm serious! Either you give me the coins, or I'll take the hat! Ok I decided, I'll just take the hat!"

With a quick gesture of the other hand, Nori took Bofur's hat and waved it in the air. Still laughing, Bofur tried to catch him but Nori was very quick and managed to keep the object out of the miner's reach.

“Come on Nori, give it back. You know it's important to me” The brown dwarf warned him, not wanting to ruin him while they played.

"You're right, here take it!"

With a deliberately too broad gesture, Nori threw his hat into the air far beyond Bofur's reach, making him fall behind him. Bofur snorted as he turned to retrieve it, and when he looked back at his companion as he pressed his hat to his head, he almost lost a heartbeat.  
Nori was kneeling before him, one hand in his tunic while the other rested on the raised knee.

"I've been thinking a lot about this moment lately" He started seriously, making the miner swallow. "I wanted to find the best way to do it, and in the end I thought it was just that. After all, that's how it all started, in front of an inn with me that was robbing you. Obviously it is not the inn of Belegost and you are not drunk and I do not want to rob you, but ... I hope it is worth the same"

Slowly he pulled the box out of the inside pocket of his tunic, the same one he had checked dozens of times before his arrival, and opened it revealing a finely woven and decorated mithril ring. Bofur stifled a groan in his gloved hands as he saw it.

“I decided to ask you the way men do it in Gondor, because I know that you are a very romantic person, unlike the dwarven customs. Bofur, will you marry me?"

“Yes, Mahal, yes!”

Bofur launched himself on the other dwarf with open arms causing him to fall to the ground. Luckily Nori had the reflexes ready to close the box before falling to keep the ring from rolling away. Bofur filled him with small quick kisses while crying with joy, Nori laughing and returning the embrace.

"Oh dear Mahal, finally!"

A sudden voice attracted the attention of the two dwarfs, who sat amazed. From behind the wall of a building Dori appeared, followed by Balin.

"It's about time you asked him, idiot!"

"What the hell are you doing here, Dori!" Nori spat visibly angry as he got up and indicated with the index "I told you not to come!"

"I tried to convince him, but he didn't want to listen to me"

Ori and Dwalin followed the dwarf couple, to Nori's amazement. Bofur laughed heartily and greeted them cheerfully as if nothing had happened.

“Finally my big brother is getting married! I wasn't hoping for it anymore!"

"Dear Bombur, it was from Belegost that I was waiting for this moment!"

Bombur and Bifur approached Nori and Bofur across the street, taking Nori by surprise. The ginger dwarf was dumbfounded as Bofur embraced his starters. Bifur picked up the box and urged the miner to put on the ring.

“So that's how Gondor's men ask for their partners' hand? It is unusual to see him do it to a dwarf"

"No, damn Mahal, you don't too!" Nori exclaimed seeing Kili and Tauriel come out of an alley, followed by Fili, Gloin and Oin.

"Did you all come to attend the proposal?" Bofur asked full of happiness while Nori covered his red face with embarrassment with his hands.

"Bofur! Oh Bofur I'm so happy for you!"

Bilbo ran to meet Bofur and embraced him with abandon, happy for his best friend. Thorin, still dressed for public functions, joined Dwalin and Balin as he watched the scene.

"Well, since you're all here, go in!"

At Nori's suggestion, the company hurried to enter the inn. When they were alone, Nori approached an excited Bofur again and hugged him pulling him close to him.

“Nori, it's beautiful. This is too much for me, wear mithril!"

"No, it's perfect instead"

They exchanged a long kiss, then Nori gave a smart smile to the miner.

"Do you remember when you tried to offer me a beer in Belegost?"

"Yes, vaguely I believe. I was very drunk"

"Yes, otherwise if you were. Well I really think it's time to accept"

Bofur laughed at those words and kissed Nori again who, taking him by the hand, led him to the inn where the rest of the company was waiting for them.

The End.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading my story, for following me so far on this new and uncertain path for me. Thanks for reading my chapters, laughing and crying with me for the adventures of these dwarves. Thanks for writing to me, for leaving the kudos. Thanks for all.  
> I am writing other stories, including that of Bifur and one on Boffins, I do not know when and which one I will publish, but I will return.  
> See you soon!


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